Hayden rolls back the years to lead Éire Óg to Junior 'B' title
Derek Hayden leads the celebrations for Éire Óg Photo: Pat Ahern
A brilliant second half performance with Derek Hayden scoring 2-4 from play saw Éire Óg take the Junior Football B Championship title at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday.
The first half never really took off. Both sides did move the ball around in a short off-loading game but with passes going astray it made for a frustrating time for players and spectators.
Clonmore’s Owen Coleman opened the scoring with two points and followed up it up with a two-point free. Éire Óg replied with Liam Ryan scything his way through the Clonmore defence but firing over. Shane Murphy scored two points from play and Corey Harmon converted two frees.
Key moment of the half came in the second quarter when Coleman’s 40 metre free was not collected by the Éire Óg keeper, Evan Kearns, and the ball dropped over the goal-line. At the interval Clonmore led 1-4 to 0-5.
Two minutes into the second half the game was turned over completely with Hayden scoring 1-2 in quick succession. The goal came after Clonmore erred on the kick-out. Minutes later, Liam Ryan soloed through and found the net again at the scoreboard end of the ground. Clonmore were in big trouble but did well to hit back when Darragh Cullen ran down the left and slid the ball past a static Éire Óg defence.
The eventual winners didn’t panic and Hayden was on hand to score his side’s third goal. That all but killed the game and while Clonmore scored three of the last four points it was never going to be enough to deny Éire Óg the title.
D Hayden 2-4, C Harmon (3fs) 0-5, S Murphy 0-3, L Ryan, L Carpenter, R Donnelly Finn 0-1.
O Coleman 1-6 (1-2pf 3fs), D Cullen 1-1, W Byrne 0-1.
Evan Kearns; Lee Mulhall, Aaron Bolger, Paul Behan; John Gilligan, Niall Swan, Shane Kelly; Stephen Lacey, Corey Harmon; Cathal Brady, Liam Ryan, Lee Carpenter; Shane Murphy, Derek Hayden, David Kenny. Subs: Ryan Donnelly Finn for Kelly (33), James Esser for Kenny (34), Paul Shaw for Behan (35), James Ruth for Gilligan (52), Cian Clancy for Carpenter (55).
Francis Whelan; Tom Cashen, John Kelly, Rory McKernan; William Doyle, William Byrne, Evan Fitzachery; Dara Connolly, Paddy Byrne; Darragh Cullen, John McGrath, Lewis McDonnell; Con Murphy, Owen Coleman, Oran Keating.Subs: Daire Byrne for Keating (34), Luke Kelly for Kelly (45), Sean Tompkins for McDonnell (52), Reuben Hunter for Murphy (56), Niall McDonald for McKernan (56).
Peter Doran (Tinryland).
