*Cormac Murray takes on Shane Nihill. Photograph: James Downes
ST JOSEPH’S MILTOWN have set up a winner-take all final round with St Breckans and have consigned Wolfe Tones to the relegation play-offs.
St Joseph’s Miltown 2-19
Wolfe Tones 2-12
Venue: Clarecastle
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Martin Guerin’s outfit exited a greasy Clarecastle GAA ground with the full two points on Saturday evening, ultimately leaving their final group game clash against St. Breckans to decide who takes second place in Group 3.
The Cleary twins accounted for 0-14 of Miltown’s entire tally.
Successive defeats ensure Wolfe Tones be in the relegation play-off regardless of how they fare against Kilmurry Ibrickane in a fortnight.
They were promising in the first five minutes racing into a three point lead with white flags from Darragh Leahy, Colin Riordan and Liam Divilley.
Miltown’s first score wouldn’t come until the eight minute as Cormac Murray fisted over his only point of the evening, which was followed by Eoin and Conor Cleary kicking points to level the matters on ten minutes.
The first goal of the evening came three minutes later as Seán Neylon found himself through on goal, in which he fired his shot past Tones’ keeper Fionn McInerney to make it 1-3 0-3.
Miltown’s second green flag followed two minutes later, as Cormac Murray found the net a low driven shot into the bottom right corner.
A pointed free from Eoin Cleary on seventeen minutes was responded with Tones’ first score since the fifth minute as Clare U20 panelist Colin Riordan fired over the first two-pointer of the outing narrowing the deficit back to five.
A pointed free from each way for either side from Mícheál Murray and Colin Riordan was later followed with the Shannon side’s first green flag as Darragh Leahy buried his goal attempt past Ger Malone on twenty six minutes.
Eoin Cleary added two more points to make it 2-7 1-6 at half time.
In a similar fashion to the first-half, Wolfe Tones came out the sharper outfit, with Daithí Lohan finding himself on the end of a Darragh Leahy cross-like hand pass across Malone’s goals and he finished to the net, twenty five seconds into the second half.
Momentum was dashed when Eoin Cleary kicked a two pointer on thirty four minutes with scores from Euan Lineen and Conor Cleary subsequent to this making it a six point gap.
Dean Devanney and Eoghan Gough would bring it back to four by the forty first minute before Darragh McDonagh and Riordan traded points and Cleary kicking his seventh of the evening on forty nine minutes.
A pair of two pointers from Conor Cleary signalled the end of the line for Wolfe Tones, pushing out the gap to nine point with less than ten minutes remaining. Two Riordan frees finished off a decent display from the dual-player with the final scores of the evening falling to Devanney and Eoin Cleary.
On an evening that was extremely wet and greasy, excluding the immense Cleary twins, some inspirational displays were produced by Gordon Kelly, Cormac Murray in addition to a fine performance from Oisín Looney.
For the losing side Colin Riordan caused Miltown trouble throughout, with Darragh Leahy, Aaron Kelly and Tan Greene being very impressive for the Shannon men.
Scorers for St. Joseph’s Miltown: Eoin Cleary (0-8, ‘TP(f), 2f’s), Conor Cleary (0-6, 2TP’s), Cormac Murray (1-1), Seán Neylon (1-0), Eoin Devanney, Euan Lineen, Darragh McDonagh & Mícheál Murray (0-1 each)
Scorers for Wolfe Tones: Colin Riordan (0-7, ‘TP, 3f’s), Darragh Leahy (1-2, f), Daithí Lohan (1-0), Dean Devanney, Liam Divilley & Eoghan Gough(f) (0-1 each)
St. Joseph’s Miltown:
1: Ger Malone
2: Euan Reidy
3: Seánie Malone
4: Cormac Devitt
5: Seán Neylon
6: Gordon Kelly
7: Stephen Murphy
8: Mícheál Murray
9: Conor Cleary
10: Paul Frawley
11: Darragh McDonagh
18: Oisín Looney
13: Eoin Cleary
14: Cormac Murray
15: Euan Lineen
Subs:
12: Cian Mahony for Murphy (46)
28: Ralph Whelehan for Frawley (54)
30: Enda O’Gorman for Neylon (57)
27: Eoin Devanney (57)
19: Gearoid Curtin for Looney (63)
Wolfe Tones:
1: Fionn McInerney
2: Shane Nihill
20: Eoghan Casey
4: Tan Greene
7: Jason McAuley
3: Aaron Kelly
24: Daithí Lohan
8: Liam Divilley
17: Aaron Brennan
10: Brian Murphy
11: Jayme O’Sullivan
12: Joe McGauley
13: Dean Devanney
14: Colin Riordan
29: Darragh Leahy
Subs:
19: Darragh Lohan for Divilley (21)
25: Eoghan Gough for Brennan (21)
23: Ben O’Neill for Gough (49)
Referee: Jim Hickey (Cratloe)
