Okay: I’ve calmed down sufficiently for me to believe that a myocardial infarction is now an unlikely possibility, though somewhere between seven and half seven this evening, I thought it might have been on the cards at any minute. The way that match unfolded in Cardiff was the stuff of dreams and it sure made a fitting climax to the little lad’s birthday celebrations. All week long, he’d been telling all and sundry that he was going to have a Grand Slam Birthday Party today and, boy, that he did have. Memories are made of this.
But, of course, it wasn’t the only classic encounter on a football field today as earlier on down in Charlestown, the U21s of Mayo and Roscommon served up an absolute cracker of a Connacht semi-final. We won, after extra-time, by 4-14 to 2-15 (match report from the Mayo Advertiser here) in a match that saw fortunes swing wildly from one side to the other and then back again. We looked home and hosed at half-time, where we led by 2-5 to 0-4, with the goals coming from from Neil Douglas and Jason Doherty. But it was all Roscommon after the break and they seemed to be on the verge of ending our provincial four-in-a-row hopes at this level as they led by three points with two minutes of additional time played. Then Jason Doherty got on the end of a ball pumped into the visitor’s square and his second goal of the day (he ended up with 2-4 to his name) sent the game into extra-time. We immediately re-took control of proceedings at this juncture and when Neil Douglas got his second and his side’s fourth of the day, that was that for the Sheepstealers’ highly vaunted side. We now face Sligo in the final: they saw off Leitrim easily enough in the other semi-final played today.
I’m not travelling West till the morning and so I was kept abreast of events at Fr O’Hara Park by The Brother – in whose opinion we were lucky to prevail today – and by the excellent Twitter updates provided from the game by No-One Shouted Stop! In relation to the latter, I’ll be returning the favour via the same medium from the game in Ballina tomorrow.
Great performance by the U21’s, played the game at pace, off the ball movement was very good, lucky to get the draw at full time, the rossies should never have let Mayo the chance, but Mayo never gave up. Showed composure and sideline made some good switches. These two tight games will benefit the team, have the ability to score goals but some queries over defence, seem to want to outscore the opposition, would we be the first team to win 4 in a row in connacht if we overcome my “adopted” county here in Sligo?