AIB Connacht Senior Football Championship quarter-final

ST BRIGID’S 0-13

COOLERA-STRANDHILL 1-3

Kevin Egan at Dr. Hyde Park.

Injuries to Brian Stack and Ruaidhrí Fallon were the only black marks for St. Brigid’s in what was otherwise a comfortable afternoon in the AIB Connacht senior club football championship, as they easily overcame Coolera-Strandhill to set up a clash with Mohill of Leitrim next weekend.

The Roscommon champions, who won the last of their four provincial titles 11 years ago, missed out on the chance to play outside of their county after their last win in 2020, but looked like a side that was primed and ready to go deep into the winter, right from the start of this contest.

Mercurial inside forward Ben O’Carroll ran riot in the early stages with a string of outstanding points, terrorising the Coolera-Strandhill defence. Having been held scoreless from play in the county final – albeit with two direct man-markers for company that day – the Roscommon county attacker was afforded a much easier ride today and he made hay, kicking five of his six points in the first half.

The home side were wind-assisted in that opening half, but there was so much more to their play than that. Eddie Nolan and Shane Cunnane made some excellent catches at midfield, while Cunnane, Ruaidhrí Fallon and Pearse Frost also demonstrated some immaculately crisp tackling, dispossessing Coolera-Strandhill players over and over again.

Niall Murphy was guilty of two bad misses for the seaside club in the opening half but other than that it was one way traffic, with Conor Hand, Bobby Nugent and Eddie Nolan also getting in on the act with some outstanding first half points.

0-9 to no score at half-time made for grim reading for the Sligo side, and even with the wind at their backs, there were ten minutes gone in the second half before the prospect of ending the game scoreless was taken off the table. On a day when promising Sligo U-20 footballer Mark McDaniel was ruled out with an injury sustained in the warm up and none of the three Sligo senior regulars – Keelan Cawley, Peter Laffey and Niall Murphy – made any meaningful impression on the contest, it was the impressive Adam Higgins who finally found the target in the 40th minute, curling over a right-footed effort from 35 metres out.

Even then, St. Brigid’s reply was immediate from Bobby Nugent, but there was no doubting that the zip was gone out of the South Roscommon club at this stage. A serious injury to Brian Stack, who landed awkwardly after breaking a high ball away from Niall Murphy, led to the All-Star nominee getting carried off the pitch, and from then on, it was a case of containment football, with occasional breaks out of defence.

Coolera-Strandhill struck for points from Seán Taylor and Keelan Cawley, while Leo Doherty found the net after catching a high ball in traffic and squeezing a daisy cutter of a shot inside Cormac Sheehy’s far post, but even then St. Brigid’s comfortably closed out the game, with joint captain Paul McGrath concluding the scoring deep in stoppage time.

Scorers for St. Brigid’s: Ben O’Carroll 0-6 (0-2f), Conor Hand 0-2, Bobby Nugent 0-2, Eddie Nolan 0-1, John Cunningham 0-1, Paul McGrath 0-1.

Scorers for Coolera-Strandhill: Leo Doherty 1-0, Adam Higgins 0-1, Seán Taylor 0-1, Keelan Cawley 0-1.

St Brigid’s: Cormac Sheehy; Seán Trundle, Brian Stack, Pearse Frost; Ronan Stack, Alan Daly, Ruaidhrí Fallon; Eddie Nolan, Shane Cunnane; Robbie Dolan, Paul McGrath, Conor Hand; Ben O’Carroll, Ciarán Sugrue, Bobby Nugent.

Subs: Micheál Sugrue for Trundle (half-time), Luke Griselain for B Stack (44), Brian Derwin for Hand (47), Brian O’Hara Duggan for Fallon (49), John Cunningham for Dolan (55)

Coolera-Strandhill: Keelan Harte; Luke Bree, Seán Taylor, Jonathan Cassidy; Adam Higgins, Ross O’Carroll, Ross Doherty; Kevin Banks, Peter Laffey; Leo Doherty, Keelan Cawley, Seán Murphy; Jaime Walsh, Niall Murphy, Oran McDonagh.

Subs: Conor Burke for Walsh (half-time), Donagh Flynn for McDonagh (45), Kevin Harte for Higgins (60+3), Eoin Comerford for R Doherty (60+3)., Ben Cawley for Bree (60+3).

Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway)