Ennistymon have stormed into the quarter-finals of the Clare SFC and taken the scalp of last year’s beaten finalists Cratloe in the process.
Ennistymon 3-06
Cratloe 1-07
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis
For this do or die contest, Cratloe were slight favourites and looked to justify this tag for the majority of the encounter but they were left sucker punched when their inability to score in the final quarter was punished by a determined Ennistymon that are showing signs of improvement in each outing.
Conditions at a wet Cusack Park on Sunday morning may have caught both sides by surprise as when Ennistymon and Cratloe’s footballers left North Clare and South Clare respectively, there were little if any drops of rain en route.
They saw enough rain during their sixty minute contest to last them a week while their supporters were grateful to be able to avail of either stand in Cusack Park, the absence of such a facility would surely have led to many departing earlier than planned as the football itself was not worthy of maintaining their attention while battling a constant downpour.
An opening quarter in which both clubs registered two scores each saw Cratloe in front with one of their efforts being a goal from Conor McGrath. He hit the net on five minutes when a Tiernan Hogan line ball was intercepted by Enda Boyce, this led to a combination between the McInerney brothers Cathal and Jack with the younger of the two picking out McGrath with an excellent pass and once given the opportunity he made no mistake.
Substitute David Fitzgerald with a nice score from long range responded for the North Clare side. The Clare senior hurler was brought into the fray to replace his county teammate Cathal Malone who limped off with an injury after seven minutes. Their Banner colleague, Diarmuid Ryan finished out the scoring in the first quarter to put Cratloe 1-01 0-02 ahead.
Within four minutes, Ennistymon’s confidence rose sharply with the Rouine cousins Eoin and Brendan both raising green flags. An indirect free from Pierce DeLoughrey was miscontrolled and turned over with the ball landing at the feet of Eoin Rouine with a simply tap in required by the Clare U20 captain which he duly obliged on.
A dropping ball from Cillian Rouine was batted down by DeLoughrey with Brendan Rouine quickest to react to the break and from the 20m line he spotted the Cratloe netminder was slightly off his line and he excellently lobbed him and left the ball in the top right corner of the net to leave it 2-02 1-02 on twenty nine minutes. Late scores from Podge Collins and Conal O’Hanlon reduced that gap to the minimum at the sounding of the half-time whistle.
Jack McInerney and Diarmuid Fahy traded scores on the restart while Cratloe added on further efforts from Podge Collins and Cathal McInerney. Ennistymon’s return of a single score in the third quarter did damage their challenge but did not prove fatal whereas Cratloe’s inability to register a single score in the final quarter was a major blow to their cause.
Notably Ennistymon upped their workrate in the final quarter and were much smarter in their use of possession while Fahy struck for the killer blow on sixty one minutes to seal their place in the last eight.
Adam Ralph, Brendan Rouine, Diarmuid Fahy and Ciaran McMahon were best for Noel Crowe’s side while David Collins, Diarmuid Ryan and Sean Hynan were prominent for Colm Collins’ Cratloe.
Scorers Cratloe: C McGrath (1-00), C McInerney (0-02 2f), P Collins (0-02), C O’Hanlon (0-01 1f), D Ryan (0-01), J McInerney (0-01 1f)
Scorers Ennistymon: D Fahy (1-02), B Rouine (1-01), E Rouine (1-00), T Hogan (0-01), D Fitzgerald (0-01), C McMahon (0-01)
Ennistymon:
1: Noel Sexton
2: Cathal Reilly
3: Darragh Connelly
4: Adam Ralph
5: Sean Rouine
7: Ciaran McMahon
6: Sean O’Driscoll
9: Cillian Rouine
8: Mattie Kinch
19: John Murphy
11: Cathal Malone
10: Brendan Rouine
15: Tiernan Hogan
17: Killian Malone
14: Eoin Rouine
Subs:
18: David Fitzgerald for Malone (7) (Inj)
20: Diarmuid Fahy for Hogan (HT)
23: Liam Devitt for Murphy (35)
25: Lawrence Healy for K Malone (46)
12: Michael McDonagh for E Rouine (56)
Cratloe:
1: Pierce DeLoughrey
2: David Collins
3: Kevin Harnett
4: Sean Hynan
5: Liam Markham
6: Sean Collins
7: Enda Boyce
8: Michael Brennan
9: Diarmuid Ryan
10: Conor McGrath
11: Padraic Collins
12: Rian Considine
15: Cathal McInerney
14: Conal O’Hanlon
13: Jack McInerney
Subs:
17: Shane Gleeson for Boyce (24) (Inj)
19: Billy Sheehan for J McInerney (55)
18: Sean Chaplin for Considine (61).
Referee: Wayne King (St Josephs Doora/Barefield)
