Looney lands late, late leveller for Cooraclare

Cooraclare 1-10 Éire Óg 1-10

Cooraclare were grateful to referee Michael Rock’s interpretation of injury time as much as John Looney’s last-gasp point as they salvaged their championship season with a dramatic late, late leveller at Lissycasey on Saturday afternoon.
Rock played six minutes of additional time and in the final piece of action in what was an exciting contest, Looney landed a pressure point to throw Cooraclare a championship lifeline.
Wayward with earlier attempts from frees, Looney’s perfectly floated free-kick from 40m, awarded following an ill-timed lunge by Darren O’Neill, found the target. Cooraclare had cut it very fine indeed and while a draw was probably a fair result, Éire Óg will bemoan their inability to see time out after Shane Daniel’s close-in free, on the call of normal time, looked to have sealed the deal.
Playing a two-man full-forward line having deployed Hughie Donnelly as a third midfielder, Cooraclare dominated the opening quarter, mainly due to their ability to hoover up a lot of the breaking ball in a congested midfield area.
With their forwards showing well, they should have had more on the scoreboard by the end of the opening quarter than the points notched by John Looney (free), Fergal Lillis and Thomas Donnellan.
Contributory factors were some poor decision making and an equally poor pass from Sean Maguire when a goal was in the offing. Maguire engineered himself into a shooting position but opted to find Declan McMahon, only to play the pass behind the corner-forward.
Slowly but surely Éire Óg found their feet and thanks to the powerful display of Michael O’Regan they played their way back into the game. Eoin Glynn and Shane Daniels kicked excellent points while Michael Kelly pushed Cooraclare’s points tally to four.
However, the game was turned on its head five minutes before the break when Éire Óg were awarded a penalty. Darren O’Neill’s fisted pass was destined for the unmarked Brian Lenihan but Andrew O’Neill advanced and clattered into Lenihan. Eoin Glynn cooly slotted the penalty kick low to O’Neill’s right.
Remarkably, having done most of the attacking, Cooraclare found themselves a point in arrears. But by the break parity was restored when Mark Tubridy pointed and, interestingly, their half back triumvirate had all scored by the break.
Cathal Lillis, who started in place of the injured Rory Donnelly, edged Cooraclare back in front before Éire Óg hit a purple patch with six unanswered points as they looked to have taken a firm stranglehold on the game.
Brian Lenihan, Shane Daniels, Stephen Hickley (2), Dean Ryan and Darren O’Neill reeled off the points and it looked game-over for Cooraclare.
Cooraclare redoubled their efforts and clawed their way back. Points followed from Mark Tubridy and the outstanding Joe Considine. Then the goal they needed to really ignite their comeback duly arrived.
After pointing, Joe Considine fielded the kick-out  before feeding the ball to John Looney. Looney made ground and dispatched the ball low to Shane O’Connell’s right. In the space of three minutes, they had wiped out the deficit.
The game was back in the melting pot and Cooraclare edged in front when Mark Tubridy kicked a free, only for Eoin Glynn to respond for the Townies.
As the game ticked into the final minute of normal time, Shane Daniels looked to have snatched it for Éire Óg when he pointed a close-in free. It was about seeing time out but they hadn’t bargained for six minutes of additional time, or the battling qualities of Cooraclare.

Cooraclare: Andrew O’Neill; Michael Chambers, Conor Marrinan, Gearóid Meade; Mark Tubridy, Fergal Lillis, Thomas Donnellan; Joe Considine, Michael Kelly; Sean Maguire, John Looney, Colin Kelly; Hughie Donnelly, Cathal Lillis, Declan McMahon.
Subs: Michael McMahon for Kelly; Joe Killeen for Maguire.
Scorers: John Looney (1-2, 2f), Mark Tubridy (0-3, 2f), Fergal Lillis, Thomas Donnellan, Michael Kelly, Cathal Lillis and Joe Considine (0-1) each.
Yellow cards: Andrew O’Neill, Mark Tubridy, Michael Kelly.
Frees: 28; Wides: 1“I never thought the game was gone from us. We knew they’d never give up and the changes probably made the difference.” John O’Dea, selector.

Éire Óg: Shane O’Connell; Michael O’Regan, Donie Lyne, Saren Butler; Dean Ryan, Conor Healy, Nicky Hogan; David Russell, Darren O’Neill; Shane Daniels, Brendan Manning, Brian Frawley; Stephen Hickey, Eoin Glynn and Brian Lenihan.
Sub: David Monaghan for Frawley.
Scorers: Eoin Glynn (1-2, 1-0 pen); Shane Daniels (0-3, 2f), Stephen
Hickey (0-2) Brian Lenihan, Darren O’Neill and Dean Ryan (0-1) each.
Yellow cards: Michael O’Regan, Saren Butler, Dean Ryan, Darren O’Neill, Brendan Manning and Eoin Glynn.
Frees: 15; Wides: 3
“Both teams contested the game well but our discipline let us down. We gave away a few frees at the end which probably cost us.” Joe Joe ­Whelan, manager.

Referee: Michael Rock, Ennistymon.