RORY’S BACK (AND JUST IN GOOD TIME TOO)
Winning. The neatest, not to mention shortest, of titles for a sporting autobiography and one that Rory Kavanagh might now see fit to alter to ‘Winning (And How You Miss It When You’re Not a Part of it Anymore’). Not that there was any winning for Donegal last Sunday.
Rory Kavanagh has returned to the Donegal set-up.
For at least some of those who trailed out of O’Donnell Park, his name would have been on their lips as someone who could have made a difference. Would have been a difference.
Those fans had watched a below par Donegal surrender a lead to a team they should have been comfortably able to deal with – even with fourteen men.
And the news that broke after the weekend that the St. Eunan’s man was back in the county panel and up for consideration for the remaining McKenna Cup game – and it looks like there will be only one now -, the National League fixtures and the Ulster Championship, is surely a significant boost, particularly after what transpired on Sunday.
Goals win matches and on that score, the Belfast visitors won out with two of their own as opposed to zero three pointers for the hosts who did squander a number of decent opportunities.
An unlikely series of results and points difference stand in their way of making it through to the McKenna Cup semi-finals but they will find it difficult enough to overcome a Fermanagh side at Brewster Park this evening – a team that were full value, it appears, for their six point win over Down at the weekend.
Another defeat would cast more doubts on this Donegal side but it can’t be ignored, as said here before, that this is a transition period and the young players coming into the reckoning for senior duty will need more time to adjust to the step-up.
Losing. Not a title Rory Gallagher wants for his autobiography but not a habit he wants either before we enter the serious end of business later in the year.
ROVERS AND IN!
It looked like the final strike of the game had won it for Letterkenny Rovers and in the end it was indeed the last kick of the match that sealed their passage through to the last sixteen of the Intermediate Cup.
Paul Boyle dispatched the winning spot-kick as Rovers advanced in the FAI Cup.
I got along to the Aura Leisure Centre on Sunday for Rovers replay with Dunboyne United and if those in the small attendance wanted a decision in normal time so they could venture somewhere warmer to take the chill out of their bones, they were to be disappointed. For this one went the whole way of Cup replays, extra-time and penalties being required to separate two evenly matched teams.
It may not have been a classic – chilling yes, thrilling no – but it certainly retained the interest right to the moment, Rovers central defender Paul Boyle, placed the ball on the spot and struck home the decisive goal in the shoot-out.
Each of the penalties had been expertly taken – except for the one saved by Rory Kelly in the home goal that gave Rovers the advantage.
The Letterkenny side could have won it right at the end of stoppage time in extra-time when Paul McVeigh – a contender for man of the match though I would have given it to Boyle who won all the highs balls that came his way and was solid throughout – found the net with a header but was ruled offside.
No luck there but plenty of good fortune for Rovers opening goal when they were awarded an edge of the box free-kick that looked harsh in the extreme. Nothing lucky, however, about the sweetly aimed dead ball hit by Darren McElwaine that brought the home side level after Dunboyne had recovered from a shaky start to take the lead.
A disappointing attendance it must be said though events, quite literally over the fence – Donegal’s McKenna Cup clash with St. Mary’s being the counter attraction – may have made some sporting minds up. (apologies at this stage for our non-observance of the national anthem that sounded out from O’Donnell Park as our game was well underway and referee Coll refused to stop play for it!).
Meanwhile, Rovers will hope for a better turnout for the match against Midleton in the next round scheduled, I believe, for Sunday week at Leckview Park.
PACKIE BACK ON BOARD
Packie Mailey has re-signed for Finn Harps.
Great to see the influential Packie Mailey adding his name to the Finn Harps squad for the forthcoming season, not long after fellow central defender, Keith Cowan put his name on paper.
Harps started back into training this week with Ollie Horgan, having managed to persuade most of last season’s panel to sign up again, but also hopeful of adding a couple of fresh faces in addition to defender Ryan McConnell and striker Ryan Curran.
He’ll need them all for a Premier League that doesn’t allow too many shortcomings in terms of squad set-ups.
ULSTER COMEBACK MIGHTY BUT…
Ulster enjoyed a great result in the Champions Cup.
They’re describing it as one of the great comebacks in rugby history and Ulster’s stirring second half revival that saw them overhaul a 23-0 deficit to win by a solitary point over French side, Oyonnax, in the European Champions Cup was indeed mind blowing.
Bringing on Paddy Jackson for the closing forty minutes proved the inspiration the Ulstermen needed to turn the match, and ultimately the result, on its head.
But I’d strongly suggest that another one of the Irish Provinces was involved in THE comeback to beat them all.
May 21st, 2011. Heineken Cup Final, the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Leinster up against Northampton Saints.
I’m watching this game in a pub in Dublin surrounded by Leinster supporters and consequently become one myself for the afternoon. But at half-time, the boys in blue are 22-6 behind with their English opponents in complete control. It’s basically a matter of them seeing out the second half and Leinster playing for a bit of pride.
Or maybe a lot more than pride. Four minutes into it and Johnny Sexton goes over for a try in the corner which he duly converts. Ten minutes later, shortly after the video referee has ruled out a Gordon D’Arcy try, Sexton is in again. And by now – indeed since half-time – it’s all Leinster and by the 58th minute they’re in front courtesy of a pinpoint Sexton penalty.
Twelve minutes to go and Nathan Hines goes over for another Leinster try, again converted by Sexton.
Leinster run out winners by 33-22 in the most dramatic final on record.
The half-time gap may not have been as significant as Ulster’s reversal but the opponents, the occasion and the prize were infinitely greater and consequently that comeback must surely rank a few pitch lengths beyond even Ulster’s magnificent effort at the weekend.
DRIVE-IN WEDNESDAY
How to incorporate a reference to David Bowie in a sports column. Well, he was no Elton John and therefore never chairman of Watford F.C. so that’s that ruled out.
But in reference to last week’s comments in this column about the likes of Anthony McCoy and Alex Ferguson accepting Knighthoods (and indeed Elton John) I’m pleased to note that Mr. Bowie turned down the chance to become a ‘Sir’ suggesting he didn’t know what it was for. “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. It’s not what I spent my life working for,” the Thin White Duke maintained after rejecting the honour back in 2003.
Good on him, I say. But still not enough to give him a mention in a weekly sports digest.
Though, I have to say, I did get the opportunity once to meet up with the great man. Unfortunately there were sixty thousand others there at Slane Castle at the time and I couldn’t get through the throngs to get to the stage. But still, the Glass Spider Tour of 1987 was something else and a memory to cherish even if the concert itself, as far I can recall, wasn’t half as good as his albums.
But still not appropriate enough to give him a mention in this column. Though, I could point out, he did have a starring role in the film based, they say, on Ashley Young – ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
No, nothing for it – but, wait, here’s Arsene Wenger riding to the rescue with a tribute to Bowie during a press briefing this week: “I must say, the message he gave to my generation was very important because it was after the Second World War and it was basically – be strong enough to be yourself. That is a very strong message and very important for my generation,” the Gunners boss declared.
There you are, I knew I‘d get away with giving him a mention somehow.
What’s the betting ‘Oh, You Pretty Things’ will be ringing out from the visitors dressing-room at Anfield tonight?
CHEST SUPPORT
The B.B.C. cameras at the Exeter City/Liverpool F.A. Cup clash focus on two individuals watching the game from an apartment window overlooking St. James’ Park. Both young men are bare-chested. One chest is inscribed with the name ‘Jurgen’ while the other individual has ‘Klopp’ written on his.
Prompting co-commentator, Danny Murphy, to insist: “The one on the left LOOKS him.” And indeed does bear a passing resemblance to the Liverpool manager.
“I’m glad you spoke, I have no words,” the B.B.C.’s Guy Mowbray managed to add.
Which probably summed up the opinion of many television viewers on the night, this one included.
SANDWICH FILLERS
A Friday morning chat over a cup of coffee in ‘The Sandwich Company’ on Letterkenny’s Main Street brings the following claim from a regular in the premises, Victor Fisher. He insists that one-time Finn Harps full-back, Sean Boyle – and a classy operator he was in his day – from Ramelton played a match for the club on the same day he got married.
Anyone out there able to verify this, drop us a line (to be fair, Victor did backtrack slightly by saying afterwards that it might have been on the day he got engaged!).
Meanwhile, my good friend, Paul Maguire, who was also present, had another wedding/football related tale. He insisted he knew a man who headed off on honeymoon and met up with a pal with the pair spending the entire fortnight watching football matches on the telly much, we’d have to hazard a reasonably sound guess, to the disgust of his new partner in life.
Some of us had a bit more decorum than that. I remember my wedding day well – Harps drew 1-1 down in Waterford and United beat Everton 2-0.
RUNNING WITH THE STARS
Some coup that, the organisers of the Donegal Sports Star Awards persuading the great Ronnie Delany to attend their annual ceremony in the Mount Errigal Hotel at the end of the month.
One of the all-time heroes of Irish sport – his gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games a stand-out moment in this nation’s history.
Half thinking of challenging him to a 1500 metre race when he’s here. But only half. The other half has this awful fear that even in his eighties he’d still leave me standing.
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