McDonnell on fire as Gaels blow Shrule Glencorrib off course

JUNIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GROUP 2

Northern Gaels 1-12

Shrule Glencorrib 2-6

LACKEN

The Championship has just began and the first surprise has arrived. Northern Gaels pulled off deserved victory thanks to a feisty performance against last year's finalists Shrule Glencorrib. The home crowd was rocking when the match finished. “It's a massive day for us,” Sean McKeown told The Mayo News as the home side celebrated. “We played them last year up in Shrule. We got a good beating. We were down to 14 men, so we knew with a full team today, we would push them. It throws the group wide open.” 

Man-of-the-match Niall McDonnell was instrumental in his team's win, scoring nine points. The goal from captain Cathal Boland proved to be decisive. It was a masterpiece. Boland drilled the ball into the top left corner from a tight enough angle. The goal came at the end of a move which began with a crucial Northern Gaels turnover, stripping a Shrule Glencorrib player of the ball in midfield. That hard-won turnover was just one of several similar scenes that made the difference over the 60 minutes.

Shrule Glencorrib Team manager Tom Burke was understandably disappointed: “We knew coming down the challenge ahead of us. They were in the quarter-final last year, but the performance from our lads just was not there. It just came down to hunger more than anything and Northern Gaels were hungrier.”       

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