A wholehearted display in a tense game gave the lads a well deserved win over Eire Og and puts us into a semi-final against Ballinabranna in a fortnight.
Clonmore opened brightly and Shane McGrath was nearly in for a goal in the 3rd minute but the keeper made a good save. After Eire Og’s dangerman Chris Blake opened the scoring, a couple of long range points from Con Murphy and Shane McGrath settled our nerves. Then points were exchanged to bring the score to 0-4 apiece on 20mins, Clonmore’s two coming from an excellent 50m ground free from PJ Byrne and another 40m point by Con Murphy. Further points from Con and Shane gave us a 0-6 to 0-4 half-time lead.
Well worked points from the lively David McCarney and sub Owen Coleman brought the score to 0-8 to 0-6 on 40mins.Then came the key score of the game when Kevin McCarney was fouled in the square as he was about to shoot for goal and Owen Coleman cooly stroked the ball home to give us a five point lead – 1-8 to 0-6 on 44 mins.
Eire Og continued to take the game to Clonmore and by the 59th minute had reduced the arrears to a single point – 1-9to 0-11, leaving the Clonmore supporters biting their nails. With just three points between the teams on 56mins, a great goal chance fell to Shane McGrath but again the keeper blocked his shot. The lads tackled like demons all over the field and kept Eire Og from scoring a trade mark late goal. A great run and point by Owen Coleman on 60mins was the icing on the cake and the Ref blew up shortly after. There was great relief among the Clonmore supporters as we didn’t just make the IFC semi-final, we saved ourselves from going down to Junior for the first time since 1950.
Roll on Ballinabranna in a fortnight’s time – Saturday 14 September at 4.30pm in Dr Cullen Park (will be followed by SFC game between Palatine and Kildavin /Clonegal).
Grange beat Tullow by 1-10 to 0-11 in the other quarter final. This result puts Tullow into Junior A in 2014 while Grange meet Fenagh in the other IFc semi-final on Sunday 15 September at 2pm in DCP (followed by SFC: Eire Og V O’Hanrahans).
Clonmore: Colin McGrath; Shane Murphy, Pauric Lawler, John Kelly; Anthony Byrne, Enda McGrath, Willie Rooney; David Mulvany, Ronan Doyle; PJ Byrne (0-1), Shane McGrath (0-2), David McCarney (0-1); Paul Byrne, Con Murphy (0-3 1f), Kevin McCarney. Subs: Owen Coleman (1pen-3 2fs) for Paul Byrne (39m), Conor McCarney for David McCarney (48m), Jamie Walsh for PJ Byrne (53m).
Éire Óg: Ricky Keating; Aaron Mullins, Niall Kenny,James Ryan; Shane Kelly, Gary Powell, Kelvin Chatten; Rory Byrne, Alan Curran (0-1); Andy Byrne (0-1), Leigh Callinan (0-1), Eoin Maddock;Corey Harmon, Chris Blake (0-8 7fs), Conor Murphy. Subs: Cian O’Brien for Harmon (27m), James Ruth for A Byrne (41m).
Referee: Paud O’Dwyer (Palatine).
Photo: ‘Mr Consistency’, John Kelly had another great game for the Intermediates against Eire Og, blocking and tackling tenaciously (but fairly) and getting out in front time after time. John is definitely back to his best this year.
