Galbally Pearses are worthy winners against Pomeroy

Galbally 2-7

Pomeroy 0-8

By Niall Gartland

PERHAPS it’s too early in the championship to label victories as ‘seismic’, but there’s no doubting that this was still a victory of hefty enough significance for a mightily impressive Galbally Pearses side at Killyclogher yesterday afternoon.

It was a mouth-watering billing between two of the main rivals at Intermediate level, and it certainly lived up to expectation even if scores were at a premium for most of the contest.

Indeed, Galbally failed to score for the first 25 minutes of the contest, but substitutes Barry Carberry – the scorer of their first goal – and Daniel Kerr made a massive impact as they turned the screw in the second-half.

Pomeroy, as you’d expect, fought to the bitter end but defensive heroics from the likes of full back Conor Quinn ensured that Galbally held on for a richly deserved victory at Ballinamullan.

There’s great spirit in the camp evidently, and who knows how far they can proceed in this year’s championship under their management team of Paddy Crozier and Joe McMahon.

It was a nervy opening nine minutes with no scores from either team, which possibly wasn’t surprising when you consider just how much was at stake in this blockbuster championship clash. Pomeroy belatedly opened the scoring when Kieran McGeary showed a bit of initiative and earned a free which was converted from long range by his Tyrone colleague Frank Burns. They doubled their advantage when McGeary popped over another free, and their two-point lead was deserved on the balance of play.

Both defences were faring well and forcing turnovers. A blue wall of Galbally defenders had set up shop at the back, but Pomeroy were patient in possession while a bumper crowd at Killyclogher watched on.

Galbally really needed a point to settle themselves but it just wasn’t happening for either team as there another prolonged spell without a score of any description.

The drought ended when Pomeroy’s Ryan Begley found himself in space and left it 0-3 to no score with 20 minutes on the clock.

Their opponents attempted a number of long balls into the full-forward line, but Pomeroy defenders like Ronan McKenna, Mickey McDonald and Brendan Burns were faring extremely well.

The Plunketts spurned a goal chance when Hugh McNamee’s rasper of a shot bounced back off the crossbar – it’s fair to say it would’ve been a huge score given the defensive nature of proceedings – and Galbally finally got off the mark with 25 minutes gone when Sean Murphy scored from an incredibly tight angle.

And what’s that old phrase about two buses coming along at once? The Pearses followed their long-awaited first point of the game with a brilliantly well-worked goal. Cormac Donnelly breached almost the entire Pomeroy defence with a 20-metre handpass to John Hetherington. Barry Carberry was played through on goal and held his nerve superbly.

Not long after, moments before the half-time final whistle, Conor Donaghy knocked over a fine point from distance and there we had it – after failing to score for the first 25 minutes, Galbally carried a 1-2 to 0-3 lead into the second half.

Some of the Galbally defending was top notch and they won an early free after Frank Burns was dispossessed. Cormac Donnelly’s opportunity went astray but it was basically all going to plan for the Pearses and they got their second-half account up and running when Conor Donaghy squeezed over from an unfavourable angle from the dead ball.

Cometh the man, cometh Frank Burns who scored an exceptional point under severe pressure in the 37th minute to leave only two points between the teams.

There were some excellent turnovers from both teams with Ronan Duffin (Pomeroy) and Galbally goal-scorer Carberry doing their bit. There wasn’t much space to operate in but Galbally’s Conor Donaghy got his second pointed free before Pomeroy’s Hugh McNamee scored a crowd-pleasing effort.

The game was starting to open up and Galbally took full advantage as they engineered their second goal of the game with Ronan Nugent applying the finishing touches. Now they led by 2-4 to 0-5, a huge gap in the circumstances and a bit of tetchiness crept into the game with Pomeroy picking up a few bookings.

It wasn’t over though and Ronan Duffin kept Pomeroy in touch with a close-range free before surprisingly wasting an eminently scoreable chance from the dead ball.

Frank Burns was carrying the fight to Galbally, but they were four points behind heading into the final five minutes of play.

Sub Daniel Kerr scored from a mark to drive the nail in further but Kieran McGeary responded in kind with a point from play. 2-5 to 0-7, it still looked like it was going to be Galbally’s day and Carberry scored a fine mark to extend their advantage.

The clock was ticking down, and Galbally, so much more inventive in the second-half than the first, were in their element. Sub Daniel Kerr got a second from play and it looked like Pomeroy’s race was run, and that’s how it proved as the final whistle blew shortly thereafter for a merited victory for Galbally Pearses. They’ll take some stopping.