Northern delight as Gaels win epic Mayo championship match

NOT even the great GAA poets Ó Muircheartaigh and O' Hehir could properly put words on this one.

The scoreboard said that Northern Gaels beat Swinford by a single point after extra-time in Saturday's county junior preliminary quarter-final in James Stephens Park. However, that's only the last line in the story. The other chapters were packed with intrigue, pandemonium and emotion.

Both sides disputed some of the referee's decisions and at one stage Swinford were down to 13 players, and at the final whistle both sides had 14 players on the pitch.

Throw in a penalty save, a paperwork controversy and a last-kick two-pointer to win the game and you get a flavour of this epic.

Swinford had the wind behind them in the first half and didn't kick a single point, instead they landed five two-pointers. Four from their excellent captain Liam Moran and one courtesy of wing-back Mark Forkan.

Northern Gaels were the better team for much of that opening half and a goal from centre-half-forward Tommy Clarke had them level at the break 1-7 to 0-10.

Swinford were reduced to 14 men early in the second period when jack Murphy was sent off and Northern Gaels went a point up before their wing-forward Ciaran Loughney was sin-binned.

That gave the men in black renewed impetus and despite the best efforts of Ruairi McDonnell, James Forde, Liam Ruddy and Criag McCormick, Swinford were two points clear in the closing minutes as the excellent Moran and Colin Dempsey troubled the umpires while Jack Ferguson and Luke McNicholas caught the eye for the leaders.

However, Northern Gaels refused to fade away and Tommy Clarke landed a two pointer from 55 yards to level it and force extra-time.

A paperwork controversy then raised its head. Both teams had to submit team lists for the added periods. Swinford did so, but Northern Gaels hadn't headed GAA paper and Swinford didn't have a spare one to give them. The prospect that Nothern Gaels would have to forfeit the match if they couldn't produce an official team list before the end of the game was very real at that stage.

Swinford were dealt another body-blow in the the first added period when Jack Ferguson was black-carded. That reduced them to 13 men and they were two points adrift at the end of the first half of extra time.

It seemed as if the wind-assisted Gaels were headed for victory but Liam Moran and Swinford had other ideas. The excellent forward kicked one, two, three points and suddenly the men in black were ahead.

They then had a glorious chance to win the game. They were awarded a penalty when Darren Campbell was fouled and Moran stepped forward. However, Daire Devine pulled off a superb save to keep the Gaels just a single point adrift as the sands of time ran out.

At that stage, Gaels were down to 14 at that stage too after Clarke received his second yellow card and it seemed as if Swinford were almost home as the final seconds arrived.

Then, with seconds left to play Northern Gaels went on one final drive down the field. The ball arrived in the hands of Cathal Boland and the ace attacker sent a stunning two-pointer straight between the posts.

It was the last kick of the game, the last kick of an epic and the kick that sent Northern Gaels into the quarter-finals.