Garrycastle just hang on for victory in tight battle

Garrycastle 2-10 Milltownpass 2-8

By Eamon A. Donoghue

Garrycastle got their campaign up and running after an imperfect performance against Milltownpass in this Westmeath intermediate football championship game in Rochfortbridge last Saturday. A competitive and physical challenge was predicted in this opening game between two of the favourites to win the championship. A combination of loose play, mistakes across the board and some excellent score taking was served up.

Garrycastle had a whirlwind start to the game. They had 0-4 on the board before Milltownpass raised a flag. Cathal Mannion and Conor Cosgrove both kicked a brace of scores. Milltownpass were chasing the game from the second quarter. They had plenty of possession in the first quarter but they were wasteful and had a number of erratic wides.

Milltownpass finally broke their scoring duck in the 15th minute and it was worth waiting for. Finbar Coyne smashed the ball low and hard between a number of bodies and his shot beat Seán Brennan in the Garrycastle goal. Immediately afterwards Evan Gorman kicked a free off the ground from a very tight angle on the left, close to the sideline.

The sides were level after an intriguing first 15 minutes. Gary Dolan and his Garrycastle players would have been asking themselves, 'what just happened?' They were firing on all cylinders with Milltownpass less assertive, yet suddenly the sides were on parity.

The second quarter was error-ridden and scores were scarce. Andrew Monaghan, left footed from distance, judged the swirling wind perfectly to land a badly needed score for the Athlone-based team. Cosgrove popped over another free and sandwiched between was a Liam Brennan free for Milltownpass. At half-time it was Garrycastle 0-6, Milltownpass 1-2.

Neither side had grabbed control of proceedings, with Garrycastle losing focus in the second quarter and Milltownpass wasteful with loads of possession.

Milltownpass manager David Martin, a former Maryland player, saw his side continue to be wasteful in the third quarter. They got punished after they lost possession while on the attack and in seconds the ball was in Wayne Boyce’s net - wing back Killian Redmond the goal scorer and it came totally against the run of play.

Immediately afterwards Milltownpass turned over possession again deep in their attack and this time long serving Westmeath player James Dolan punished them with a point.

Then calamity struck for Milltownpass as they once again spilled hard-earned possession and Garrycastle scored their second goal. A speculative attempt landed on top of Boyce and he dropped the ball; Cosgrove reacted quickest to palm the ball to an empty net. That made it Garrycastle 2-9 Milltownpass 1-5 in the 43rd minute.

Milltownpass actually had the majority of possession in the first three quarters but they continued to make errors in possession, turning over the ball and getting punished at the other end.

Some reward finally arrived for them, though. They started to find the range and it was all inspired by a piece of spectacular ingenuity. The pass to Liam O’Reilly seemed to be short and the chance was gone, but O’Reilly somehow volleyed the ball, soccer style, to the roof of Seán Brennan’s net. Then came scores from Coyne and Liam Brennan and it was Garrycastle 2-9, Milltownpass 2-8, with the clock about to go red.

Garrycastle played the final minutes with 14 players after Gary McCallon was shown a black card. The game became very frantic in added time; players had entered from the bench and some made a decent impact.

The eventual winners finally got back some momentum and substitute James Sheerin kicked an outrageous score off his left foot from the right hand side. Sheerin’s kick was going metres wide until the wind caught it and, like it was meant to be Garrycastle’s day, the ball seemed to stall before dropping between the posts.

There was still time though and Milltownpass did give it a go, looking for a winning goal, but there were no more spectacular efforts left in their locker.

These two sides are among the favourites in many people's eyes to win the title later in the autumn, but both will need to improve drastically in order to collect silverware.

Man of the match: Liam O’Reilly (Milltownpass). Although on the losing team, O’Reilly was relentless for his team and if they had been more accurate, they would have won the game. Noel O’Reilly and Liam Brennan also played well. For Garrycastle, their leading performers were Jack Donohue and Eoin Mulvihill.

Key moments: Conor Cosgrove’s goal against the run of play and Milltownpass’ missed penalty. Both were key to the result.

Scorers - Garrycastle: C Cosgrove 1-3 (0-3f), C Mannion 0-3, K Redmond 1-0, A Monaghan, J Sheerin and M Monaghan (f) 0-1 each. Milltownpass: F Coyne 1-2, L O’Reilly 1-0, L Brennan 0-3 (3f), B Kelly 0-2, E Gorman 0-1 (f).

Garrycastle: Seán Brennan, Jack Mulvihill, Jack Donohue, Gary McCallon, Matthew Guiheen, Eoin Mulvihill, Killian Redmond, Andrew Monaghan, Conor McKiernan, Michael Monaghan, Conor Cosgrove, Jason Nugent, Cathal Mannion, James Dolan, Ben Donegan. Subs: James Sheerin for Donegan (44), Rory McGowan for A Monaghan (53), Ger Heneghan for Mannion (55), Anthony Larkin for Cosgrove (60).

Milltownpass: Wayne Boyce, Michael McCormack, Paul O’Reilly, Gavin Glennon, Liam O’Reilly, Noel O’Reilly, David Manning, Shane Flanagan, Liam Gorman, Oisin Coogan, Liam Brennan, Tony Loftus, Brandon Kelly, Evan Gorman, Finbar Coyne. Subs: Shane Corcoran for Flanagan (45), Gareth O’Connor for Manning (53).

Referee: Shane Maher (Ballynacargy).