High Noone for two-goal hero

THERE was a point separating the teams after 51 minutes of Sunday's county junior final and momentum was gathering behind the Shrule-Glencorrib charge.

Then a Joe Queenan kick-out was grabbed by Shane Finnerty, a young man who graduated from university earlier in the week, and he found Barry Leonard racing by him.

The defender sent the ball screaming across the face of goal and Mark Noone volleyed it to the net for one of the great MacHale Park goals.

Afterwards, the ace attacker tried to put words on the goal, his second net-shaker of the afternoon, and the score which finally killed off the gallant South Mayo challengers.

“I saw Barry flying down the wing. Then the ball was coming across and I chased it up and got a toe to it and it ended up in the corner,” Noone told The Mayo News while also rejecting suggestions that Leonard's cross was actually a mis-hit point effort.

“Barry normally pops up for a score or an assist in every game, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he was passing it. We've played together a while and I suppose we might know the kind of runs each other would be making,” the man of the match explained as black and amber delight danced in the air.

“We've had our ups and downs as a club and as a community. At the start of the year we had some tragedy in the area and it's great to be able to give a bit of a lift to the place and see people out here celebrating and getting joy from football. There's great delight on people's faces and to see the huge crowd here today supporting us is something else.”

The Lahardane team had just won the second county title in their history – a big change from the disappointing end to last season's efforts.

“We were Intermediate for a few years. It came down to a kick of a ball last year in the relegation final and we lost by a point. We knew it was down to us to get back to intermediate football again, so we got together at the start of the year and got rolling again.

“We got back to the county final and showed we were well capable of winning it and getting back to intermediate football again.

“At half-time we were level and knew there was more in us. We went out and got the ball moving and drove at them and thankfully it began to open up a bit and we pushed on,” Noone added before being asked about the team's immediate plans.

“We'll enjoy these few days and push on to try and have a good rattle at Connacht. We've done it before and enjoyed every second of it, so we'd love to have another cut at it.”