Soccer know-how gave Coolera-Standhill an edge

Coolera-Standhill's Niall Murphy believes that the soccer experience among members of his team-mates gave them the edge in their Connacht club SFC semi-final victory over Ballina Stephenites.

Coolera-Standhill booked their place in this year's Connacht final as they held their nerve in a penalty shoot-out against Ballina after the sides drew 0-09 0-09 at Markievicz Park on Sunday.

Murphy was the star of the show for Coolera-Standhill, kicking five of their nine points, with two of them coming late on, to wipe out Ballina’s lead and bring the game to a penalty decider.

The Sligo countyman stepped up to convert from the spot during the shootout, which his side won 5-4, as Keelan Harte saved a decisive kick from Ballina’s Conor McStay.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards, Murphy credited his side’s victory on penalties to the soccer experience of his team-mates.

"We’re just delighted, over the moon now," Murphy said. "We were probably written off a lot, no one was giving us much chance coming into today.

"We had an expectation today to get over the line and thankfully we did.

"It probably didn't go the way we wanted to go, coming down to penalties which is a brutal way to end the game.

"But we had practiced penalties a lot during the week. We practiced them before the replay as well.

"We've got a lot of soccer heads here in Sligo, a lot of big soccer clubs as well. So a lot of the boys here play with Strand Celtic and have played soccer at a high level.

"I knew when it got down to the penalties that we'd be okay. On Thursday night training I think I scored 10 or something like that myself."

Watch Cuala v Tullamore in the Leinster Football Championship semi-final on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

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