Football

Glenswilly pay the penalty as Kilcoo take control after missed goal chance

 Cathal Gallagher’s tackle on Kilcoo’s Conor Laverty which saw the Glenswilly man sent off and the Down champions awarded a penalty which Darragh O’Hanlon converted 
 Cathal Gallagher’s tackle on Kilcoo’s Conor Laverty which saw the Glenswilly man sent off and the Down champions awarded a penalty which Darragh O’Hanlon converted   Cathal Gallagher’s tackle on Kilcoo’s Conor Laverty which saw the Glenswilly man sent off and the Down champions awarded a penalty which Darragh O’Hanlon converted 

AIB Ulster Club SFC quarter-final: Owen Roe’s, Kilcoo (Down) 1-12 Glenswilly (Donegal) 1-6

FIVE minutes can be a very long time in football, as Glenswilly and Cathal Gallagher found to their cost yesterday.

Two points up seven minutes into the second half, the Donegal champions were just beginning to take the game by the scruff of the neck at Pairc Esler.

No matter what they sent in Michael Murphy’s direction, something good always came.

Up until this point, he was at his unplayable best, despite having Niall McEvoy and Darragh O’Hanlon for company.

With 1-1 already beside his name from a fruitful first half, he started the second by laying on a point for Oisin Campbell to put the men from the Glen 1-6 to 0-7 ahead.

A minute later another ball was pumped in his direction. Murphy rose highest again, fisting off to the onrushing Cathal Gallagher. A goal, and a five-point lead, would have been tough for Kilcoo to reverse.

Instead of rippling Niall Kane’s net, though, Gallagher scuffed his effort wide. It would get worse. Within five minutes, Gallagher was red-carded for a high tackle on Conor Laverty just inside the square.

When Darragh O’Hanlon strode up and stroked home the penalty, the Magpies were flying, two points up with an extra man and all the momentum.

The men from Tir Chonaill didn’t manage another point, going almost half-an-hour without troubling the scoreboard, as Kilcoo successfully moved James McClean on to Murphy and picked their opponents apart as the clock wound down.

Magpies boss Paul McIver admitted that O’Hanlon’s penalty had a “huge bearing” on the outcome, and his Glenswilly counterpart Michael Canning felt the red card dished out by referee Barry Cassidy was harsh.

Canning said: “Ten minutes into the second half we were looking good. The missed goal opportunity for ourselves and then the penalty was a big call. It might have been a penalty but I thought it was a very, very harsh sending off. It changed the game.”

Before that five-minute spell, there had been little to separate the teams. Kilcoo looked the busier, more industrious side, with runners coming from all angles – but Glenswilly had Murphy.

The Down champions just couldn’t get to grips with him early on, although Murphy got to grips with Paul Devlin six minutes in to earn himself a yellow card.

Kilcoo had held the edge for much of the half thanks to frees from Darragh O’Hanlon and Paul Devlin, a Eugene Branagan score and a stunning effort from Ryan Johnston from distance, but Glenswilly were awarded a penalty three minutes before the break when Darryl Branagan felled Farrelly in the square.

There were some confused looks around the ground as McFadden shaped to take the kick, only for Murphy to eventually step up and smash the ball low to Branagan’s right. When Glenswilly added the first two points of the second half, it looked ominous for Kilcoo.

But then Gallagher’s five minutes from hell spun the game on its head.

As if things weren’t bad enough for Glenswilly, Conor Laverty had also started the second half like a man on a mission.

The move that saw him win the crucial penalty was breathtaking.

The ball was hand-passed into the former Down forward and he cleverly flicked it over the head of Cormac Callaghan before being flattened by Gallagher. Kilcoo didn’t look back.

Fittingly Laverty got the next score to make it 1-9 to 1-6 before substitute Donal Kane, a Paul Devlin free and a Niall Kane 45 finished the job to set up an Ulster semi-final date with Armagh kingpins Maghery.

“The team performed really well, showed great character and resolve which is what this Kilcoo team is all about,” said Paul McIver, who sent best wishes to Darragh O’Hanlon after the Kilcoo full-back had to be stretchered from the field after shipping a heavy tackle in added time.

The Magpies will start as favourites again when they take on Maghery on November 13, but McIver isn’t too worried about that.

“They’re going to be a serious force because they’ve no concern about history or anything like that, they’ll just go out and play the game. “It’s another step for us and that’s all we’re looking at.” 

MATCH STATS


Kilcoo: N Kane (0-1 45); N McEvoy, D O’Hanlon (1-1, 1-0 penalty, 0-1 free), N Branagan; D Branagan, E Branagan (0-1), Aaron Branagan; J McClean, F McGreevy; C Doherty, A Morgan, R Johnston (0-3); M Devlin, P Devlin (0-4, frees), C Laverty (0-1). Subs: D Kane (0-1) for M Devlin (43), JJ McLoughlin for Aaron Branagan (46), Aidan Branagan for E Branagan (57), S O’Hanlon for P Devlin (58), G McEvoy for Laverty (60). Black card: JJ McLoughlin replaced by G McEvoy (60)


Glenswilly: J Gallagher; C Callaghan, E Ward, A McDevitt; C Gibbons, R Diver, J Gibbons; N Gallagher, C Kelly; P McFadden, C Gallagher, B Farrelly (0-1); O Crawford (0-2), M Murphy (1-2, 1-0 penalty), G McFadden (0-1 free). Subs: C Bonner for Crawford (46), L Kelly for Diver (50), D McGinley for Callaghan (52), C McFadden for C Gibbons (52), C McMonagle for McDevitt (55). Yellow cards: M Murphy (6), O McFadden (9), E Ward (55) Red cards: C Gallagher (42), B Farrelly (63)


Referee: B Cassidy (Derry)