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*St Joseph’s Miltown goalkeeper Cóilin Hayes gave a man of the match display between the posts. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
Goals wins games but so do goalkeepers as Cóilin Hayes proved more difficult than the Strait of Hormuz to pass for St Joseph’s Miltown to maintain their perfect start to the Clare SFC as Cratloe fell to a second loss.
St Joseph’s Miltown 3-13
Cratloe 0-20
Venue: Páirc Finne, Corofin
The ultimate difference between the sides was that Miltown were simply more clinical in front of the posts as twice Darragh McDonagh used his strength to hold off his marker and fire to the net to add to a first half major for Euan Lineen while down the other end, the West Clare side relievedly survived eight goal scares.
Teenager Hayes prevented five of them including a first half trio of impressive stops from Jamie Moylan while remarkably Hayes got even better as the game developed, repelling a Diarmuid Ryan bullet before capping off an exemplary man-of-the-match display by tipping away a Podge Collins 55th minute penalty.
Had Cratloe scored, it would have regained full parity but instead an inspired Miltown held on for a second successive group win.
With both side craving victory, it was arguably the game of the championship to date in terms of speed, intensity and end-to-end action aided by Fergal O’Brien’s free-flowing refereeing style.
The copious amount of timely goal chances also added to the entertainment value that produced four sightings alone in the first six minutes.
With the wind at their backs, a much more driven Cratloe were settled by a Ryan Harkin two-pointer after only 40 seconds but from the kick-out, Rian Considine and Sean Collins combined to play in Jamie Moylan whose shot was parried by goalkeeper Hayes.
Targetman Moylan’s power and pace were a heady cocktail for Miltown to contend with but Paul Frawley intercepted a pass from him close to goal before Cóilin Hayes excellently tipped away another Moylan attempt by the fourth minute.
Cratloe goalkeeper Cian O’Gorman was just as effective as he kept out a Euan Lineen shot while also arrowing over a ’45 to boost his side to a 0-4 to 0-1 lead.
Darragh McDonagh set up Micheál Murray and Eoin Cleary for points to reel in Cratloe while a defiant rearguard blocked successive efforts through Conor Ryan and a frustrated Moylan.
Diarmuid Ryan did convert a two-pointer by the midway mark of the half, only to be floored from the restart as Paul Frawley, Cian Mahony, Oisin Looney and Frawley again combined to set up Euan Lineen for a cool low finish to the bottom right corner of the Cratloe net.
Eoin Cleary tagged on a brace of points to hand Sean O’Brien’s side a 1-6 to 0-6 cushion and it was needed as Cratloe’s best forward Ryan Harkin responded with two points of his own. Cóilin Hayes saved his best stop for a point-blank Jamie Moylan piledriver while Euan Lineen just cleared the crossbar to see Miltown inch into the dressing rooms 1-08 to 0-10 in front.
That pattern would be maintained on the resumption as now backed by the conditions, Miltown did their best to shake off their obstinate opponents but with little success.
An Eoin Cleary two-pointer was bolstered by another Hayes save, this time from Diarmuid Ryan but the ball would be in the opposite net only seconds later when Paul Frawley’s delivery was caught and powered to the net by Darragh McDonagh at 2-10 to 0-12 by the 36th minute.
The returning Podge Collins stepped up with two goal chances that both must went the wrong side of the crossbar but they did bookend a four point unanswered blitz to level the tie for only a fourth time by the two-thirds mark at 2-10 to 0-16.
That would be the last time that the sides would be locked together though as an almost identical second Darragh McDonagh goal at the turn of the final quarter provided the cushion for Miltown to cling to albeit that it had to take a full length stop from the cat-like Hayes to prevent Podge Collins from equalising after a foul on substitute Cathal Lohan.
That intervention effectively cemented St. Joseph’s Miltown’s place in the last eight and a further barometer in a group decider against a three-in-a-row chasing Éire Óg while for 2023 champions Cratloe, it’s now winner-takes-all in their final round showdown against Doonbeg to see who advances to the business end and which side ends up in the sharp end.
All photographs by Burren Eye Photography
Scorers for St. Joseph’s Miltown: Eoin Cleary 0-7 (1TP, 4f), Darragh McDonagh 2-0, Euan Lineen 1-1, Cian Mahony 0-2 (1f), Paul Frawley 0-1 (’45), Micheál Murray 0-1, Ralph Whelehan 0-1
Scorers for Cratloe: Ryan Harkin 0-6 (1tp), Cian O’Gorman 0-5 (1tpf, 1f, 2’45), Podge Collins 0-3, Diarmuid Ryan 0-2 (1tp), Shane Gleeson 0-1, Rian Cosidine 0-1, Sean Collins 0-1 (1f), Marc O’Brien 0-1
St Joseph’s Miltown
1: Cóilin Hayes
2: Eoin O’Brien
6: Seanie Malone
3: Cormac Devitt
5: Paul Frawley
20: Cillian Keavey
19: Cian Flanagan
8: Micheál Murray
9: Conor Cleary
10: Oisin Looney
11: Cian Mahony
12: Ralph Whelehan
15: Eoin Cleary
14: Darragh McDonagh
25: Euan Lineen
Subs
4: Jamesie O’Connor for O’Brien (37)
21: Steven Murphy for Flanagan (38)
24: Conor Neylon for Keavey (43)
18: Brian Curtin for E. Cleary (47, inj)
30: David Barry for Lineen (58)
Cratloe
1: Cian O’Gorman
19: Mike Brennan
3: Kevin Harnett
2: Marc O’Brien
4: Riain McNamara
6: Ryan Bowden
5: Enda Boyce
8: Conor Ryan
9: Diarmuid Ryan
17: Shane Gleeson
11: Seán Collins
12: Rian Considine
18: Ryan Harkin
22: Jamie Moylan
15: Podge Collins
Subs
10: Tommy Rooney for Gleeson (46)
23: Cathal Lohan for S. Collins (50)
Referee: Fergal O’Brien (Broadford)
