Sometimes you just get those signs that it’s not going to be your day.
It wasn’t to be for Castleknock as they attempted to make it into their second Dublin senior football semi-final in two years. It wasn’t their day as they came up against a Paul Mannion inspired Kilmacud Crokes outfit, and eventually were beaten by the bare minimum on a scoreline of 2-08 to 1-10.
It certainly wasn’t goalkeeper Morven Connolly’s day. But if he was reading the signs, he would have known that very early on in his evening.
Connolly was warming up for the game, as most goalkeepers do, getting the eye in by saving a few shots from his number two.
The pair had reached the advanced stages of the warm-up, with the deputy now firing relatively difficult shots for Connolly to save, and his focus had reached a peak.
He was ready for action, ready to go.
That was when the shit hit the fan. A messer who we can only assume was the Castleknock free-taker, as a result of his departure from the rest of the squad, who were completing their warm-up press-ups, was getting into the free-taking groove, attempting to send a few shots over the black spot.
His eyes were obviously bigger than his foot, as a long-ranger dropped just short of the goals, but it wasn’t him who bore the brunt of it, no, it was the poor goalkeeper Connolly who was clocked on the head by the O’Neills size 5.
The Castleknock netminder was sent to tumbling to the ground by the shock of it, and the hawk-eyed Dean Rock caught it all on camera.
The Castleknock goalkeeper went down like a sack of spuds 😂 pic.twitter.com/g7woU6zvYa
— Niall McIntyre (@NiallMcintyre) September 30, 2017
You can only imagine the choice words Connolly had in store for the offender, because Jesus them gaelic footballs are rock solid, and that must have hurt.
His evening didn’t get much better, however, as he had to face an untouchable Paul Mannion, who nearly bore a hole in the Parnell Park nets such was the ferocity of his wonder goal culminating rasper of a shot past Connolly.
When it’s not your day, it’s not your day.
