Fit to be tied

They will have to come back and do it all again this Saturday. And although it is customary in these situations to fear for the side that left victory behind it the first time round, you get the feeling that Fermanagh won’t beat themselves up unduly about this one.
True, it was they who missed the better chances and who kicked the worst wides as time ran dead in the second half, but if they were men who worried about times past and games thrown away, they’d be like all the Fermanagh footballers that have gone before them. Whatever else they are, they are assuredly not that.
They came to Dublin for their first-ever All-Ireland semifinal and scored all but one of their points from play. They ran and ran in the wind and the rain just like they’d been doing the whole summer long. And had they managed to keep their heads just a while longer, they’d have tapped over the extra couple of points that would have burned Mayo off. That they didn’t doesn’t at all mean they won’t come Saturday.
Their opponents had a bad day but didn’t leave Dublin without credit themselves. Having averaged 18 points in their previous three games, they were delighted to get away with only knocking over nine here. But some days, things just don’t fall your way. Mayo’s marquee names — the two Mortimers and Ciaran McDonald — didn’t gaily light up the afternoon like we know they can, but they never hid for a second either. The conditions played mischievous havoc with McDonald’s foot passing, but that didn’t stop him from continually looking for the next ball. That bit of stickiness and doughtiness was replicated across the field and it’s the reason Mayo aren’t watching the week through the bottom of a pint glass.
Mayo led at halftime by 0-6 to 0-5, with good and bad luck mixed into both totals. It was Fermanagh who had made the first break, going three points up in the first eight minutes. With Colm Bradley and Mark Little buzzing around the inside forward line, Mayo looked harassed and distracted in that opening quarter. When they got into their stride, however, they flowed much better and it was they who rattled off the following six scores.
Alan Dillon, while not as assured as he had been in the quarterfinal against Tyrone, clipped over a couple of frees and fullback David Heaney kicked a massive point on an upfield foray. It took two late points from Bradley and Eamon Maguire to bring Fermanagh within touching distance at the break.
The second half was dominated by the tension that enveloped Croke Park. Fermanagh came out and equalized almost immediately through Bradley before midfielder Liam McBarron edged them ahead. They then fashioned an excellent goal chance, which Ciaran O’Reilly fluffed, and watched as McDonald made his most impressive intervention of the day with a brilliant point on the run from the 45. That made the score 0-7 to 0-7. There was no way the game was going to end with more than two points between the sides.
As such, a goal would have been vital and Mayo can (and did) feel aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty as Trevor Mortimer ran through with 15 minutes left. Ryan McClusky’s tackle was more clumsy than it was malicious, but the end result was the same: Mortimer’s feet went from under him with the goal at his mercy. A lucky break for Fermanagh. They got another break a few minutes later when James Gill, the Mayo forward, picked up two yellow cards in the space of four minutes. Again, neither foul had any badness in it, but both were high and dangerous, so Gill had to walk.
So a man and a dodgy penalty decision to the good, Fermanagh set about winning the game. But they forgot how to shoot straight. Marty McGrath’s miss was the worst of them, but Tom Brewster came on and wasted two decent chances as well. Stephen Maguire slung over their only free of the day, but the sense that the afternoon wasn’t going to cough up a winner was there for a good five minutes before Michael Collins’s final whistle.
Afterward, Mayo found that they might be missing both Conor Mortimer (twisted ankle) and Ronan McGarrity (broken ribs) from the replay. Massive losses, they could be all the difference as precariously balanced a game as this can stand.

CLARE 1-11, SLIGO 0-11
The final of the Tommy Murphy Cup at Croke Park turned out to be as appropriate an end to a badly organized, poorly supported competition as you could dream of. The players were out of shape, the football was slow-paced and atrocious and only the brief flurry of excitement that came midway through the second half was scant enough reason to take the place of a minor semifinal as the traditional curtain-raiser.
In the end, Clare lifted their first piece of silverware since the took the 1992 Munster title. And, to be fair to them, they deserved it, if only because they looked the side most interested in it. Of the four teams who entered the competition, they were the only ones to look on it as a positive — the Sligo county manager James Kierans even refused to take the team on the basis that he saw the competition as a waste of time and instead put long-serving midfielder Paul Durcan in temporary charge. Clare, however, fancied their day out in Croke Park and it was their enthusiasm as much as their ability that won them the cup and the accompanying trip to Boston in October.
The goal that ended up being the difference between the sides in the end was suitably shambolic. Sligo goalkeeper, James Curran, a man who’s been enjoying his summer off if the way he fills out his jersey is anything to go by, looked slow and ponderous as he collected a ball that landed in his square and looked to offload. Clare full-forward Odhran O’Dwyer, sensing panic on Curran’s part, got a fingertip to the goalkeeper’s hurried attempt at a handpass to Nigel Clancy and then palmed the breaking ball in to the empty net from two yards out.
That goal came in the 27th minute of the first half, a half at the end of which Clare led by 1-7 to 0-4. Sligo roused an effort out of themselves for a while in the second half, but although Dessie Sloyane, John McPartland and David Colleary all chipped in with smart scores, the closest they got to Clare was two points, 1-8 to 0-9. But further points from Michael O’Shea and Dennis Russell — the only surviving member of the 1992 — team, closed out the game for John Kennedy’s side.

TYRONE 1-8, DOWN 1-7
Colm Cavanagh, younger brother of Tyrone senior midfielder Sean, scored the goal that won this minor football semifinal for Tyrone at Casement Park in Belfast last Saturday, although Down supporters were angry afterward that it was allowed to stand, Cavanagh having clearly taken 12 steps with the ball in his hands in the lead up to his strike. The goal came at a crucial time in the match, with Tyrone lying a point behind and only 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

LAOIS 1-10, CORK 0-6
In a game played out with both teams on their best behavior, Laois ran out easy winners and progress to the semifinal, where they will meet Kerry this Sunday as the curtain-raiser to the Kerry vs. Derry senior semifinal. There was no repeat of the scenes that marred the initial game; indeed, this time around, passions were considerably muted. With no real physical aspect to the game, Laois’ superior skill shone through with Donie Brennan — who has already played for the senior team this summer — the classiest player on show at Semple Stadium.