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*Paul Frawley keeps the ball from Luke Pyne. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
A PLACE in the quarter-finals of the Clare SFC already await St Joseph’s Miltown but facing off with champions Éire Óg is the “acid test” they have been waiting for.
Successive wins over Doonbeg and Cratloe by six and two points respectively to guarantee their advancement to the knockout stages before a ball is kicked in the final round of the group stages.
Reflecting on their hard-fought win over Cratloe, St Joseph’s Miltown manager Seán O’Brien stated, “We’re delighted to come out on top. It was very difficult to have control of that game, it’s probably a testament to the new rules that it was never over until the final whistle. It was up and down the field all day, I’d say both teams had about five or six goal chances and they [Cratloe] probably even had the more clearcut ones but our keeper was just outstanding”.
A three-time Clare SFC winning goalkeeper, O’Brien was full of praise for current custodian Cóilin Hayes in his debut season. “Cóilin [Hayes], for a teenager, he’s just brilliant and I don’t know why but I was fully convinced that he was going to stop the penalty as it just seemed one of those games that a goalkeeper has that they are filling the goals. So I was fully confident he would stop it and thankfully he did. He’s a top, top keeper so I was delighted for him. Up the other end, Darragh [McDonagh] got in really well for those two second half goals and Euan [Lineen] finished one in the first half and got a point from the other so we’re delighted to have gotten those goals because their goalkeeper Cian [O’Gorman] is a really good goalkeeper too. It’s a very interesting dynamic between the clubs in that way as two auld lads had been in goals for the last couple of years there and now there are two young lads playing great stuff and Cian kicked a couple of frees there as well so he’s another good prospect for the county”.
O’Brien told The Clare Echo, “we’re just happy to have gotten over the line. I mean at the end there, it was very tight and there’s skin and hair flying and we had Cormac [Murray], Gordon [Kelly] and Eoin [Cleary] on the sideline beside me so I was just delighted with the squad. After all, we played a lot of challenge games at the start of the year and then the Cusack and O’Gorman Cup games. And over that time, we got to find out lads that you could trust in those moments. Even a lad like Conor Neylon there, he’s just so unlucky not to be starting and would start on most teams. He looked like a 32 year old veteran at the end there as he won a free and then won a break straightaway, all the vital things that you need in the heat of battle so delighted with all of the squad”.
Facing off with Cratloe was going to give a good barometer of where Miltown where at, he felt. “We had targeted this game to see where we’re at against one of the top contenders as we just hadn’t been getting over the line in those type of games in a while so I was just delighted that we had some cool heads at the end to see it out”.
A chance to finish top of Group 1 is the prize when they face off with Shane Daniels’ Éire Óg on Saturday (15:00) in St Michael’s Park, Kilmihil. “We’ve an even bigger acid test the next day against Éire Óg so we’ll see where we’re at and how the bodies are and stuff and take it from there”.
