Mountbellew-Moylough 2-13 Corofin 0-12
Mountbellew dethrone Corofin. Val Daly’s underdogs ended Corofin’s seven-year reign as Galway’s Senior football champions.
Crucial second-half goals from Patrick Kelly and Paul Donnellan helped Mountbellew-Moylough cause a sensational shock in the Galway Senior Football Semi-Final as they dethroned Corofin.
Mountbellew-Moylough started the game as 6-1 outsiders against the three in a row All-Ireland champions.
Val Daly’s underdogs began well with Barry Mchugh and Eoin Finnerty firing over their first two points either side of a Michael Lundy score for Corofin. Patrick Kelly also rattled Bernard Power’s crossbar in an impressive opening spell, from the rebound Finnerty tapped over his second point. Ian Burke got a neat score at the other end to cut the gap to a point.
Michael Daly added a fine point from distance before the holders showed their undoubted quality by reeling off four scores on the spin from Ian Burke, Colm Brady, Gary Sice and Martin Farragher. Corofin held a 0-06 v 0-04 lead at the water break.
The rain that had been threatening all afternoon turned into a downpour at the start of the second quarter. Scores became harder to come by as the conditions deteriorated. Ian Burke scored his third point of the day and Liam Silke added another Corofin point after some quick thinking from Burke. However, Barry McHugh and Eoin Finnerty cut the deficit to a single point before the break.
Half-time: Corofin 0-08 Mountbellew-Moylough 0-07
When Gary Sice pointed after the restart it look like business as usual for a Corofin side who traditionally push on in the third quarter. However, the underdogs obviously hadn’t read the script. Mountbellew soon hit the front. A pacey move down the left-hand side, in the shadow of the main stand, led to a shooting chance for Patrick Kelly. He rattled his shot past Bernard Power into the righthand corner of the net.
The assembled contingent of 100 Mountbellew fan let out a deafening roar that echoed around the empty stadium, sounding more like they number in their thousands. Corofin responded to this setback well and level up the game.
However, the Mountbellew fans were in full voice again ten minutes later when a Barry McHugh free dropped short and was rifled to the net by Paul Donnellan.
Suddenly the champions were looking down the barrel, five points in arrears with five minutes to play. Mountbellew- Moylough finished strongly. Barry McHugh added further scores to ensure a novel county-final pairing of Mountbellew-Moylough v Moycullen next weekend.
Scorers:
Mountbellew-Moylough – Barry McHugh 0-5 (3f), Eoin Finnerty 0-04, Patrick Kelly 1-0, Paul Donnellan 1-0, Michael Daly 0-1.
Corofin – Ian Burke 0-4, Gary Sice 0-3, Micheál Lundy 0-1, Colin Brady 0-1, Martin Farragher 0-1, Liam Silke 0-1.
