Tigerish Tiernan's seal Connacht semi-final spot after extra-time

CONNACHT PPS SENIOR D QUARTER-FINAL

St Tiernan's Crossmolina 2-14

Castlerea Community School 2-11

(After extra-time)

In Knockmore

TWO notebooks would have been required to fully capture the happenings in St Joseph's Park as St Tiernan's showed tremendous resilience to book a place in the Connacht semi-final.

The Crossmolina students were worthy victors and will take a lot from a battle played out in cold, wet and windy conditions.

Castlerea were excellent opponents and could easily have left North Mayo with victory in their cargo. Dara Curran, who was named as one of the 15 best minor players in Ireland last year, was exceptional and centre-half-forward Kevin Hester wasn't far behind him. They led their side brilliantly and caused Tiernan's a lot of trouble.

The Crossmolina students never played the football they're capable of, but they showed tremendous fighting qualities when it looked like they might exit the competition.

Tiernan's had the strong wind behind them in the first half and a goal from Conor Carey got the Mayo boys off to a great start. His brother Tony's excellent two-pointer put the Purple and Gold in a great position, but on a day when ball-handling was difficult, the Roscommon boys profited from two defensive lapses. Curran and Tyler Waldron found the net and the guests were just two behind at half time.

Curran kicked five points in the opening nine minutes of the second half and Castlerea were moving well, but Tiernan's stayed in it. They created three goal chances but failed to take any of them, before Tony Carey's well-hit free midway through the half cut the gap to two points, and he was about to make a crucial impact.

Eight minutes from the end, the excellent Ardagh attacker produced a moment to magic to get on the end of a long passing move and he slalomed past three defenders before finding the bottom corner. It was a goal worthy of any stage and the Mayo boys took a one-point lead into the closing minutes. 

However, Castlerea hit back and Waldron equalised in the 58th minute. 

Tiernan's drove up the field looking for the winner and a foul in the goalmouth saw them awarded a penalty. A Castlerea player was sent off in the aftermath and another was sin-binned for a scuffle, which broke out before the kick was taken.

Dara Curran went in goal for the penalty and produced a brilliant stop to save Tony Carey's well-hit spot kick. That was the final kick of normal time and Castlerea began extra-time with just 13 players. Confusion reigned about the number of players Castlerea had to keep in the opposition half, given their numerical disadvantage and for the first added period they played with just one up. This caused a lot of angst, but the situation was remedied for the second period when they had to leave three in the Tiernan's half. 

The sides both kicked two points apiece in the first period of extra-time and Castlerea seemed to have the advantage, given they were back to 14 players and had the stiff wind on their backs for the second period, but Tiernan's were not for turning. Tony Carey kicked two points and Tadhg Keane added another as the Mayo lads pulled away to win a place in the last four. 

A full report will be carried in Tuesday's Mayo News.