THE LAST POINT: Goals that got us leaping out of our seats

The press box is, according to journalistic tradition, supposed to be an area of restraint, decorum and a little bit of common sense. There was nothing worse back in the day, when we still used typewriters to chronicle the events we witnessed in the sporting arena, than to be labelled a ‘fan with a typewriter’, a sneering contempt at those who exhibited no self-control whatsoever in the confines of the press gallery. Well, let me tell you, I’m no stranger to ‘fan with a typewriter’ syndrome and last weekend just another instalment.

​Maybe it is the local beat that brings us closer to the people we write about – there is a connection, for good and for ill, that makes maintaining a dignified distance from the subject in hand is almost impossible. I’ve gotten into a few verbal spats, ‘friendly’ barbs traded under the guise of ‘banter’ when the honour of Leitrim has, to my eyes at least, being besmirched. Good humour is usually restored pretty quickly but there is nothing like home to bring out the raw emotion in even the most hardened hack.

The one complete no-no in the press box is to jump out of your seat cheering and, confession time again, I broke that twice in Heartland Credit Union Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada last weekend. Aisling McWeeney presaged what Tom Prior did virtually 24 hours later when she hammered home a goal on Saturday to grab her team a draw in a County Final – that it came before a much smaller audience doesn’t negate the impact of her goal, every bit as important as Tom Prior’s thunderbolt and it elicited the same reaction, me roaring out loud!

Since I’m in the mood for confessions, another one – just as added time began in Sunday’s Connacht Gold SFC Final, I remarked to colleague Eoin Gallagher that I didn’t care who won, as long as it didn’t go to a replay! Talk about tempting fate but with a glut of County Finals followed by Connacht Club action, you couldn’t blame me if I’d wanted a reasonably quiet October Bank Holiday weekend, a feeling shared in both the Fenagh and Ballinamore camps with stags, hens or travel plans to Australia all up in a heap!

Aisling McWeeney’s goal drew Kiltubrid level with an incredibly young Annaduff team on the stroke of full-time, a cracking goal that brought the Ladies Intermediate Final to extra-time where the hard won experience of Kiltubrid saw them claim the cup, although there was a glimmer of another ‘Tom Prior’ goal in the dying seconds of extra-time but Annaduff’s shot went wide.

Sunday brought about a cornucopia of thoughts that are hard to coherently assemble but here goes: Great to see the Minor Final back on the big day and if the fare we witnessed as St Mary’s Kiltoghert completed a double-double of League and Championship wins two years in a row is anything to go by, underage football in Leitrim is in a healthy place. There are concerns over the growing size and pick of some areas but this was a thrilling contest, hard fought with quality football that had fans wondering if the Senior game might reach the same level.

That wasn’t a given because County Finals tend to be tension filled affairs but from the get-go, Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins and Fenagh St Caillins decided all-out attack was the way to go. You could see Ballinamore’s thinking in not letting Fenagh’s stingy defence get set-up and in those frantic opening minutes, it looked as if Paul Honeyman was intent on destroying Fenagh single-handedly. But if we’ve learned anything this Championship year, it is that momentum swings so quickly that it is hard to comprehend.

Could you imagine Honeyman only scoring a point, or Ryan O’Rourke not scoring from play? Or that Tom Prior, for all the majesty of his goal, saw the game pass him by? I’m not getting at any of these lads, men who have carried their teams for years and Ryan in particular a colossus for Fenagh, but it is a measure of the standards they have set that it was noticeable but you definitely couldn’t say any of them lacked effort or desire.

Instead it was Dillon Beirne, Fergal McLoughlin and Keelan McHugh who assumed the scoring burden while Riordan O’Rourke had an outstanding game. But that’s the nature of County Finals, you never know who will write their names into folklore. Wayne McKeon and Darren Maxwell did that five years ago when Ballinamore ended a 30 plus year wait for the title but I can’t imagine either foresaw what would happen last Sunday.

No point beating about the bush, had Maxwell not been forced off, hard to see Ballinamore not going home with the Cup. For what it’s worth, I thought McKeon did an amazing job between the sticks, his instinctive save from Colm McLoughlin’s flick worthy of winning a game but it wasn’t to be as Fergal McLoughlin steamed in to get the scores that brought Fenagh to life. There’ll be quite a bit of concern in Ballinamore to see if Maxwell makes it back for the replay, although in theory, they have a bit more time to prepare a response.

Referee Kevin Mallon took a bit of stick for blowing full-time early, 13 seconds by my watch, but I have no problem with that – imagine the furore had either side grabbed a winner! My initial reaction is that Fenagh’s penalty was soft and that Michael McKiernan got away with a gentle touch of the ball on the ground in the lead up to Ballinamore’s equalising goal, whatever about Cathal McHugh’s bulldozer impression on Eoin McLoughlin, opinions reinforced when I watched the video back.

But that’s all it is, my opinion, and watching the game back with the frantic nature of championship football and pressure to make split second decisions as everything is going a 100 miles an hour, I can see where both decisions came from – some may even quip, they even each other out but try making that argument to anyone wearing Red & Black or Yellow & Green last Sunday evening!

Truth be told, I half expected a dour, hard hitting slog because of the stakes and the fact it was a derby but instead we got a free-flowing contest with chess moves from both teams. If the replay lives up to the drama and excitement of last Sunday’s drawn game, we’re in for a treat!