Inside Track: Many wins nailed with the curtain about to come down
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
What have Sam Mulroy, Dennis Taylor, Ronan O’Gara and Troy Parrott got in common?
They all know how to pick the opposition’s pocket right at the death. Three of them, Mulroy, Parrott and O’Gara, were team players – Taylor was flying solo – when they worked the oracle just before the curtain came down. Defeat looked inevitable, but the quartet wouldn’t let it happen.
Taylor first. It’s been told before, the story of how the Coalisland man won the 1985 World Snooker Championship, but is always worth recalling.
Taylor’s opponent in the final, Steve Davis, was on a hat-trick when the pair head-to-head at The Crucible. It was the best of 35, and at one stage, David held a commanding lead.
But Taylor wouldn’t give in. He clawed his way back, winning enough frames to level it, 17-all. It was nip and tuck in the decider, so close in fact that it went all the way to the last ball on the table.
Both had a chance to pot the black. Davis didn’t take his; Taylor did. It couldn’t have been any closer.
The Crucible erupted – the title was on its way back to Ireland for only the second time, Alex Higgins, having won the first a decade earlier.
A lot of footballs have been kicked since Troy Parrott completed his hat-trick in Budapest last November, some of them the multi-coloured jobs being kicked about in the games presently going ahead on the other side of the Atlantic.
Still, the Dubliner’s achievement remains vivid in the minds of his Republic of Ireland team’s supporters. The game against Hungary was a World Cup qualifier, and the home team only needed a draw to qualify for the finals.
With the game well into injury time, Hungary seemed to have done enough, the score standing at 2-2. They’d have known Parrott was on a roll – he had not only scored twice already, but got another brace against Portugal a few days earlier.
He couldn’t get another, could he? Could he what? Throwing in everything, except the towel, Ireland went in search of the winner they needed to stay in the race for North America.
Goalie, Caoimhín Kelleher, came up to take a free, and floated it towards the Hungary goal. The ball looked to be drifting wide. That’s what we thought, but not Parrott. His outstretched leg got enough on it to be able to steer it to the net.
The local crowd was stunned into silence – Irish fans at the game and at home cheered and then crossed their fingers. Their team was still in with a chance of making the finals. Unfortunately, it wasn’t taken.
Ireland hadn’t won rugby’s Grand Slam in over 60 years when the team captained by Brian O’Driscoll headed to Cardiff for a last round Six Nations match in 2009.
They’d been unbeaten up to that, but knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Welshmen, like Scots, aren’t known for giving things away.
And so it was. The home team led by six points at the break. O’Driscoll and Tommy Bowe tries then put Ireland in front. But with the clock edging closer to the 80th minute, Wales found themselves back in front.
It was then all or nothing for Ireland. The commentator told us O’Gara had moved into the pack. The ball was moved to the Munsterman, and with the accuracy of William Tell, he arrowed his drop kick between the posts. It was 17-15 with the clock reading 78 minutes plus some seconds.
It didn’t end at that. There was still time for Wales to earn a penalty. Stephen Jones, who had earlier nailed a drop goal to put Wales ahead, couldn’t find the target this time.
And so to Inniskeen last Sunday week. Sam Mulroy would have had a two-pointer in mind when he swung his boot at the ball from outside the arc with time nearly up. Had it gone over Louth and Armagh would have had a further 20 minutes to face into.
But there was more in it for the team captain. Ethan Rafferty, assured in most things he’d done before that, let the ball through his hands.
The latest of late winners Mulroy has ever claimed for club or county. Louth’s victory was as sweet as a nut.