Second half goals help Clonmore save Intermediate status
Ballinanbranna will play their football in the Junior 'A' Championship next season after two goals at the start of the second half saw Clonmore victorious and keep their Intermediate status for another season in what turned out to be a thriller of a relegation final.
Clonmore were leading by just a single point at half-time but it could so easily have been more. Without a doubt they dominated the early exchanges but simply weren’t clinical enough. The green and red side were through on goal at least three times in the early stages but couldn’t quite get shots away. They should have taken the lead when they were awarded a penalty after five minutes but Dylan Doyle could only steer his effort wide of Cian McDonald’s goal.
They were hit with a sucker punch on ten minutes when David Cox opened the scoring for Ballinabranna, bisecting the posts with an effort slightly to the right of the posts. Ballinabranna raced into an early three point lead with Clonmore yet to get on the scoreboard with 20 minutes gone.
They did find their scoring boots soon enough though with two points from Billy Lawlor and one from Shane McGrath brought them level again. Conal Cullen notched them ahead with three minutes to go until half-time. Oisin Doyle put two points between the sides in stoppage time before Bobby Daly Jnr pulled back a point for the side in white.
Whatever was said at half-time seemed to do the job for Clonmore and they came out fighting. Within two minutes, they had the ball in the back of the Ballinbranna net when Lawlor raced into space down the left and forced the ball home.
Ballinabranna weren’t going to lie down though and Daly Jnr sent over a two point free to reduce the deficit to just two points.
The Ballinabranna defence was breached once again less than a minute later as Fiach Byrne raced through the middle and fired the ball into the back of the net.
It was tit for tat for much of the second half with both sides keeping the scoreboard ticking over. It looked at one point like Ballinabranna might pull it back when they reduced the deficit to three points but Clonmore had done all the hard work and once they had gone ahead at the start of the second half, never looked like being beaten. Ballinabranna did well to keep the pace and keep the scoreboard ticking over but just couldn’t find the elusive goal that would have kept them up.
Billy Lawlor (1-3), Fiach Byrne (1-0), Enda McGrath (0-2), Dylan Doyle (0-2, 1f), Shane McGrath (0-1), Conal Cullen (0-1), Oisin Doyle (0-1), Oisin Doyle (0-1), Daire Byrne (0-1).
Bobby Daly Jnr (0-5, 1f, 2 2pf), David Cox (0-4), Liam Ryan (0-1), Mark FitzGerald (0-1), Paul FitzGerald (0-1).
Jordan Kane; Cormac Connolly, Shane Murphy, Matt Cullen, Rory Maguire, Anthony McDonald, Conal Cullen; Eoin Connolly, Luke Connolly, Enda McGrath, Shane McGrath, Fiach Byrne, Oisin Doyle, Billy Lawlor, Dylan Doyle. Subs: Lee Doyle for Connolly (36), Daire Byrne for S. McGrath (46), Aaron Doyle for Kane (50).
Cian McDonald; Tom McDonald, Brian Cox, Jake Gorman, Ceilum Darcy, Jimmy Cahill, Andy Mulleney; Ben Kavanagh, Bobby Daly Jr; Patrick Meaney, Colin Byrne, Cormac O’Hara, Paul Fitzgerald, David Cox, Liam Ryan. Subs: Mark Fitzherald for Byrne (36), Daniel Dunne for Ryan (36), Tom McDonald for Gorman (40), Patrick Meaney for P. Fitzherald (45).
Eoghan Evesson (Asca)
