Miltown keep moving with five point win over Ennistymon

EOIN Cleary marked his return to the Miltown colours shooting 1-3 as they recorded a five point win over Ennistymon.

St Joseph’s Miltown 1-12
Ennistymon 0-10
Venue: Cooraclare

In what was Cleary’s first sixty minute championship appearance for his club in two years, the ex Clare captain led the way and netted the goal on fifty two minutes to kill off an Ennistymon comeback.

Darragh McDonagh with a tremendous run up the field made the goal for Cleary, the midfielder along with centre back Gordon Kelly were their standout players as they ran out deserving winners.

Overly cautious in possession and afraid to take on shots, Ennistymon have kicked thirty one scores (1-7, 1-12, 0-10) in 180 minutes of championship football, the type of figures they are returning won’t win knockout games let alone honours of note.

As per the programme they have a panel of 42 but the majority of these players appear more inclined to favour hand passes and elongated routes to goal rather than the courage to have a pop when in a scoreable opportunity. With all this in mind, they will need to use the month’s break until their next outing to seriously consider adapting their approach.

There was a poor attendance in Cooraclare for the tie and the brave souls had little to digest from a bad opening half. Miltown raced into a three point lead with Kieran Malone, Darragh McDonagh and Euan Lineen on target inside the first six minutes.

Diarmuid Fahy converted a free on eleven minutes to get Ennistymon off the mark, he had a second from play following good work Conor Rynne. In between this, Cian Mahoney pointed for Miltown after meeting little to no resistance from the Ennistymon defence when breaking through.

Gordon Kelly powered up field and combined with Conor Cleary before finishing off the move with a fisted point on sixteen minutes with Liam Cotter then responding at the other end.

Cleary, McDonagh and Lineen closed out the scoring at half time to see Miltown hold a 0-8 0-3 advantage at the interval.

Cillian Rouine was the only player to score in the third quarter, the centre back had efforts from play and a placed ball which was followed by a Brendy Rouine free on forty six minutes lowering the gap to two points.

Liam Cotter is held by Cormac Murray. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

Eoin Cleary is tackled by Keith White. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

Tiernan Hogan tackles Gordon Kelly. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

Seán Rouine looks for an option under pressure from Eoin O’Brien. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

Their purple patch continued with Ciaran McMahon pointing as did Diarmuid Fahy twice to give them the lead for the first time on fifty one minutes.

After going behind for the first time, Miltown replied with the game’s only goal, McDonagh thundering up the field in possession and firing the ball across goal which Cleary palmed to the net.

Kieran Malone then put three between the sides, Seán Rouine responded but Miltown finished with the final three scores to seal a five point win.

Leaders stood tall for Miltown when needed in particular Eoin Cleary, Gordon Kelly, Darragh McDonagh, Eoin O’Brien and Jamesie O’Connor. Martin Guerin’s side have bounced back well from a first round loss and enter the knockout stages in high spirits.

Granted their poor start to the second half will see them punished by better opposition when it comes to the final whistle but they were the stronger side in every sense on this occasion.

Having done so well to get themselves back in the driving seat, Ennistymon through their inability to tackle Miltown players running at speed pushed the eject button when Eoin Cleary struck for goal as there was no coming back for them.

For the majority of the second half they were the better side but left themselves with a mountain to climb with such an abysmal first half. The middle was good but the start and finish wasn’t, nothing but a complete performance will suffice going forward for them. Conor Rynne fought well for Ennistymon for whom Diarmuid Fahy was their chief threat.

Scorers St Joseph’s Miltown: E Cleary (1-3), D McDonagh (0-3), K Malone (0-2), E Lineen (0-2 2f), C Mahoney (0-1), G Kelly (0-1)

Scorers Ennistymon: D Fahy (0-4 2f), C Rouine (0-2 1f), L Cotter (0-1), B Rouine (0-1 1f), C McMahon (0-1), S Rouine (0-1).

St Joseph’s Miltown:
1: Sean O’Brien

2: Enda O’Gorman
3: Seanie Malone
4: Eoin O’Brien

13: Brian Curtin

5: Cian Mahoney
6: Gordon Kelly
7: Jamesie O’Connor

11: Sean Neylon
8: Darragh McDonagh

10: Eoin Cleary
9: Conor Cleary
12: Kieran Malone

15: Cormac Murray
14: Euan Lineen

Subs:
17: Micheál Murray for Neylon (HT)
18: Paul Frawley for C Murray (52)
20: Paul Keane for Lineen (60)
21: Ralph Whelehan for C Cleary (63)

Ennistymon:
1: Noel Sexton

4: Darragh Conneely
3: Joey Rouine