A disappointing evening at Robert McCallion Memorial Park in our penultimate game of the league season. With our slight chance of promotion gone the previous weekend and Mayo Gaels below us in the league table the game had very little meaning save for ending the season with a bang.
As like last weekend we started off slowly and left ourselves with a lot to do but we once again we fought our way back into the game but ran out of steam in the end. If we can play an entire game like we did for the middle third for two weeks in a row we will go places but leaving ourselves with a Mountain to climb every week is too much for any team out there.
Mayo Gaels started the game off with a quick attack that ended with a wide but the soon had the white flag raised and this was soon extended with two more points. While we had three wides before Liam Moran got his first of his six points. By the 15 minute mark Mayo gaels had scored 1-6 to our 0-1 and six wides.
We got a foothold in the game in between the 15th and 20th minute and points from Liam Moran, Kevin McDonagh, Jack McDonnell (F) and james Devaney (f) brought the game back to 4 points.
Unfortunately Mayo Gaels got four of the next six scores to leave the game at half time Swinford 0-7 Mayo Gaels 0-7. Our two points coming from a fine 45 from Liam Moran which he followed with a point from play to end the half.
We needed a good start to the second half and that we did with Liam Moran continuing his scoring form with two more points to bring us back to within 4 points once again only for Mayo Gaels to get another point. A free from Jack McDonnell and a punched point from Michael Walsh.
After 10 minutes of the half Mayo Gaels scored a point and it looked like everytime we got close to them they would pull away once again. Eoin Gallagher made a fime run and was pulled down to let Jack McDonnell get his third point of the game but then disaster as Mayo Gaels got their second goal and we were back to a six point gap.
Kevin McShea who was on as a second half substitiute got one back but this was soon nullified by a Mayo Gaels point.
Suddenly we began to exert real pressure on the Mayo Gaels defence and a Jack McDonnell free and then a quick free by Michael Walsh over on the sideline was sent into the box and Kevin McShea knocked into the goal,, just getting over the goal line and there was only two between us with seven minutes left. The away team were also reduced to 14 men after a black card for a player allready booked in the first half.
Regretably that was to be the end of our scoring as in the last few minutes Mayo Gaels scored 2-1 to leave the game Swinford 1-14 Mayo Gaels 4-14.
It was a game that could have and should have been won, we wasted a lot of possession with some terrible shooting and allowed the opposition run at us with numbers with complete freedom leaving our defence with too much too do.
There is one game left against Achill, provisionally set for next weekend at home. It has been a long season since our first game last February and we lost a number of players to emigration and injury during the year that would hurt the best of clubs out there. Now lets just get the season over and have a rest and regroup for next year.
Swinford: Ryan Convey, Jason Carney, Paul McDonagh, Aidan McLoughlin, Fergal Harte, Mark Forkan, Kevin Doyle, Michael Walsh, Barry Brennan, Tom Horkan, Liam Moran, Kevin McDonagh, Jack McDonnell, Eoin Gallagher, James Devaney. Subs Kevin McShea
Scorers: Liam Moran 0-6, Kevin McShea 1-1. Jack McDonnell 0-4, Kevin McDonagh, James Devaney, Michael Walsh 0-1.