Oughterard 2-5

Barna 1-8

Mike Rafferty at Pearse Stadium

A pattern is emerging in Barna’s performances because for the second game in succession, they came from well in arrears to rescue a point in this year’s senior championship.

After their draw with Killannin in their opening Group 2 game, they were in even greater difficulty in Pearse Stadium on this occasion but aided by a late Tom Curran goal they scored 1-2 in additional time to secure a draw.

Indeed with momentum on their side, only the clock got the better of them getting a late winning score.There is no doubt that Oughterard will have been very disappointed by this outcome. For the duration they looked to be the better footballing side and twice built up comfortable leads before eventually losing them on both occasions.

They were never headed in the contest, and aided by the return of Matthew Tierney, they opened up an early five point gap, before losing it as Barna – inspired by Cian Hernon – slotted over five points in succession to level matters in a wind assisted half.

Oughterard did strike for the closing score of the half when Niall Lee goaled to give them a three-point interval advantage. They gradually built on this with three points, but it was hard work as they also made a mess of at least three goal scoring opportunities.

Their final score of 2-5 constitutes seven scores and it is not a tally that will win many championship games. Obviously, the tactics chosen by manager Alan Murphy are ones to get the best results possible for his side, but with every player retreating back into his own half when the opposition are in possession, it leads to a very negative game.

It wasn’t that they were having many efforts at goal either, for like the opposition, they also shot just four wides.

Barna were not without sin on this occasion either. Straight from the throw-in they won possession and for exactly three minutes went over and back across the pitch and never made any attempt to penetrate the packed Oughterard rearguard.

Eventually they fouled the ball and a swift Oughterard counter attack set up the ever-willing Cian Monaghan and after he was fouled in the square, Matthew Tierney drilled the resulting penalty past James Keane to give them the perfect start. Tierney then slotted over two close range frees to give them a 1-2 to no score advantage by the 9th minute

Pictured: Philip Gibbons gave a solid defensive display for Oughterard.