AIB All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final
Clifden (Galway) 1-9 Stewartstown (Tyrone) 1-14
(after extra-time)
ON that wet August afternoon back in 2016, when Stewartstown Harps broke new ground for the club by winning a Grade One U21 county championship, this was exactly the type of bright future that they envisaged in the east Tyrone village.
Dan Lowe was centre forward on that team, and one of 11 members of that 2016 panel that played a part in their win over Clifden on Saturday afternoon in Dr. Hyde Park.
And he was quick to admit afterwards that as a group, they took longer than they would have liked to hit the high notes at the adult ranks.
“When we won the under 21s, we should have pushed on but we didn’t,” he said.
“This group should have come before now, we took our time, we probably should have done more before now, but Peter (Armour) and Chicken (Blake Smyth) have really got us going and look where we are now”.
Where they are now, is headed for an All-Ireland final on the back of a very impressive victory where they had to show immense reserves of quality, energy and mental resolve to prevail.
“It was a quare battle right the way through. Clifden gave it everything, we gave it everything, and thankfully we came up with the right result” was his summary, but in truth there was so much more to it than that.
Neutral observers might have looked at the 1-2 to 0-4 half-time score and concluded that this was a defensive winter battle, but it was far from the truth. Defensive – no, but laden with quality defending? Absolutely.
With the wind at their backs, their half-backs rampant and with Macauley Quinn and Stephen Talbot controlling the midfield battle, Stewartstown had the better of the general play. Yet they trailed by that odd score, thanks to a really well-taken goal from John O’Brien, created by a precision 40-metre pass from Emmet Moran.
Still they continued to press high up the field, to try and win turnovers in the Galway side’s half of the pitch, some rash tackles cost them at one end, allowing Ger Gibbons to rack up the points from frees.
At the other, the Harps created goal chances, but just couldn’t take them. Gareth Devlin had one effort brilliantly blocked by Seán Black, Dylan McElhatton missed another opportunity, while Macauley Quinn had the clearest opening of them all, but put his effort too close to Ian Staunton in the Clifden goal from 20 metres out.
With just under 10 minutes to play Clifden still led by two, and the wides kept mounting. In the end it was Jason Park who turned out to be the unlikely hero, sending over the point that forced extra-time.
“We were confident enough because we had clawed our way back. We were a point down at half-time but by the end, we were on top at that stage, so we knew we could do it” said Lowe.
Two points up at half-time in extra-time thanks to a Gareth Devlin goal, crafted by a brilliant Anton Coyle pass, and with the breeze to come, they looked good certainly. That was until James Campbell was black-carded, and when Clifden were awarded a penalty five minutes in, the contest hung in the balance.
Enter Greg Kelly to save the penalty, and late scores from Devlin (two) and Coyle stamped their passage to Croke Park, and a clash with Fossa and the Cliffords, who beat Castletown of Meath by 3-14 to 0-11 in the other semi-final.
“It’ll be some test, but everyone’s buzzing for it” said Lowe.
It’s a dream date, six and a half years in the making.
Clifden: I Staunton; G King, J Mannion, N Murray; R King, M O’Toole, S Black; C Joyce, S Sweeney; C Coneys, G Gibbons (0-9, 0-8 frees), H O’Toole; E Conneely, J O’Brien (1-0), E Moran
Subs: D Kennedy for Conneely (h-t), D Joyce for O’Brien (42), C Connolly for G King (47), E Mahon for Moran (57), Conneely for Joyce (66), C O’Donnell for H O’Toole (77), T Madden for Coneys (80)
Yellow cards: Black (4), Gibbons (30)
Stewartstown: G Kelly; J Park (0-1), D Devlin, C Quinn; K Robinson, M Rooney, G O’Neill (0-1); S Talbot (0-1), M Quinn (0-1); T Rush (0-1), C Devlin, D McElhatton (0-1); D Lowe, G Devlin (1-6, 0-4 frees),
T Lowe (0-1, 0-1 mark).
Subs: C O’Neill for C Devlin (46), A Coyle (0-1, 0-1 free) for T Lowe (57), J Campbell for McElhatton (60), T Lowe (15th man for ET), D Coyle for O’Neill (80), McElhatton for Robinson (80).
Yellow cards: C Quinn (29), Park (36), D Lowe (52), D Devlin (61), O’Neill (73)
Black card: Campbell (70)
Red card: C Quinn (60)
Referee: J Hayes (Limerick)
