Penalties needed as Lahardane book place in Connacht final

Connacht Junior Football Championship Semi-final

Lahardane MacHales 0-12 Menlough 1-9 (AET)

*Lahardane win 5-3 on penalties

Oisín McGovern in MacHale Park

THE most unassuming of penalty kicks from Mickey Murphy booked Lahardane’s place in their first Connacht Junior final since 2017.

The game that could have been won by both teams, who coughed up several chances in wet and windy conditions that weren’t conducive to slick football.

Despite not scoring from play until the 43rd minute, Lahardane did just enough to force the game to extra time and subsequently to penalties – where they scored all five of their spot-kicks.

Lahardane were dealt a hammer-blow in the eighth minute when Donal Loftus saw his shot blocked before Kevin Reilly executed a superb rebound finish.

Despite the aid of a strong wind, Eddie Conroy’s men did not score until James Maughan pointed a straightforward free in the 18th minute.

Frees from James Maughan (2) and Shane Loftus were all that Lahardane had to show for a first half where they failed to score from play.

Leading 1-5 to 0-3 at the break, Menlough only manged one point in the next 20 minutes as they lost substitute Seán Naughton to a black card.

There were chances aplenty for both sides in extra time, who had several misses and errors in the wet and windy conditions.  

Despite valiant efforts all around, neither team could break the deadlock as normal time finished level.

A glorious goal chance when astray for the Galway men when Donal Loftus crashed a penalty kick off the crossbar seconds into extra-time.

Lahardane added two to their tally from an outside-of-the-boot effort from Mickey Murphy and Eoin Fergus – who fisted over a bouncing ball to level in the 76th minute.

James Maughan had the chance to win it with the very last play of the game, but he ballooned his effort way off to the right before referee Ronan Hughes blew the whistle to herald a penalty shootout.

Maughan and Chris Rowland both converted their kicks before Menlough’s Robert Hughes sent his effort into the sky.

Menlough buried their next two kicks, as did Lahardane’s Shane Finnerty and Matthew Maughan before Mickey Murphy booked their place in the Connacht final. 

A full report plus post-match reaction will be carried in Tuesday’s print edition of The Mayo News.