Oisin Looney celebrates. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
QUICKER to pounce for rebounds which led to their goals and that bit sharper over the hour, St Joseph’s Miltown overcame Doonbeg to put their championship campaign back on track.
St Joseph’s Miltown 2-6
Doonbeg 0-7
Venue: St Michael’s Park, Kilmihil
With three teams to emerge from Group 3 of the TUS Clare SFC, St Joseph’s Miltown took a giant step to ensuring they are amongst the successful trio when seeing off the challenge of Doonbeg by five points on Friday evening.
Originally fixed to be played in Quilty, the sanding of Páirc Naomh Mhuire this week prompted a change in venue to St Michael’s Park, Kilmihil but the swapping didn’t deter Miltown from completing the job at hand.
Three points separated the sides when Miltown had a 1-14 0-14 win in last year’s first round, the gap was wider this time round, not so much because the gulf between them has enlarged but rather the green flags can be attributed with arguably exaggerating the gap between them.
A shoulder operation is on the cards for Conor Cleary but he still produced a fine sixty minutes performance and one has to presume it was his ‘good’ shoulder that he used to give an excellent hit in front of the stand in the second half after winning back possession for Miltown.
He led the way, his move to midfield in second half strengthening their cause and they are expected to have his twin brother Eoin available for the third round versus Ennistymon.
Wind and rain swirled around St Michael’s Park for the early exchanges, despite playing against the elements, Doonbeg took the lead with a converted mark from Darragh Burns on nine minutes.
Wing back Oisin Looney, a standout player over the hour, made an excellent run off the shoulder to receive possession off Kieran Malone to split the posts from 45m to open Miltown’s account on twelve minutes.
Looney offered the assist for their next score, bursting through two tackles before recycling back to Conor Cleary to hit the target, his point coming in response to a David Tubridy free on sixteen minutes after Cathal Killeen was fouled in possession.
Cian Mahoney and Cormac Murray were next onto the scoresheet ensuring Martin Guerin’s Miltown hit three points without reply. Darragh Burns replied for Doonbeg, Eoin Killeen giving the delivery to the danger man.
Chances to narrow the gap further were at hand for Doonbeg and certainly within reach. Sean Conway made an excellent run with the ball but his shot tailed to the left side of the goal and wide while the experienced David Tubridy had an effort drop short on twenty five minutes.
At the other end, Miltown were also wasteful, racking up eight first half wides which kept the scoreline at 0-4 0-3 in their favour when the half-time whistle sounded.
While the wind had died down, Doonbeg needed to start the second half with scores but they were left waiting eleven minutes for one. By this time, Miltown had struck 1-1, the point a free from Euan Lineen and the goal from Cormac Murray after he reacted very quickly. Eamon Tubridy made an excellent save from Murray but he dived and managed to palm the ball to the net on forty minutes.
Prior to Murray’s green flag, Doonbeg had two chances in the space of twenty six seconds. First, Darragh Burns did well to get a flick to a dropping ball in the square but it was well saved by Sean O’Brien. From here, the ball was pushed outfield to Eoghan Killeen at the half-forward and his shot dropped short, Miltown worked the ball up-field and into the back of the Doonbeg net.
David Tubridy kicked a free, their first score of the second half on forty one minutes but Miltown’s response of a goal on their next attack was a killer blow to the Magpies. Euan Lineen had the finish after Eamon Tubridy again made a superb save, this time from Kieran Malone but Lineen was on hand to get the rebound to the net.
Midfielder Sean Conway replied with the next score for Doonbeg but it was cancelled out by Sean Neylon, the Clare U20 producing a composed effort on forty five minutes. His strike was their last contribution to the scoreboard of the evening, Doonbeg reduced the arrears with scores from Eoghan Tubridy and Eoghan Killeen but they were reduced to fourteen when Mikie Tubridy was given his marching orders, he was shown a yellow card then a red by referee Fearghal Gray, when he received the first yellow card during the game remains a mystery to the Doonbeg management.
Bouncing back following their first round loss to champions Cratloe was the focus for St Joseph’s Miltown and they achieved what they set out to do. There’s plenty of room for improvement particularly in front of goal and they’ll realise that a return of 2-6 in sixty minutes is not going to suffice if they are to return to the semi-finals.
Overall they will be content to get back to winning ways. Central to them doing just that was the showing of the solder Cleary and their half-back line axis of Oisin Looney, Gordon Kelly and Cian Mahoney. Looney’s pending move to Dubai will certainly weaken their cause.
For Doonbeg, they are without a win in the group stages of the Clare SFC stretching back to 2021, to be precise August 1st 2021 in the first round against Clondegad. Their struggles to keep going for sixty minutes have been apparent thus far this year and while they are not gone as of yet, they need Ennistymon to defeat Cratloe and to then overcome the champions in round three.
Tadhg Lillis at corner back had a fine battle with Cormac Murray while Darragh Burns once again impressed for John Keane’s Doonbeg and he certainly had the beating of the Miltown defence if he was peppered with more possession.
Scorers St Joseph’s Miltown: C Murray (1-1), E Lineen (1-1 1f), O Looney (0-1), C Cleary (0-1), C Mahoney (0-1), S Neylon (0-1)
Scorers Doonbeg: D Burns (0-2 1M), D Tubridy (0-2 2f), E Tubridy (0-1), E Killeen (0-1)
St Joseph’s Miltown:
1: Sean O’Brien
2: Enda O’Gorman
3: Seanie Malone
4: Eoin O’Brien
5: Cian Mahoney
6: Gordon Kelly
7: Oisin Looney
13: Sean Neylon
8: Darragh McDonagh
12: Jamesie O’Connor
11: Brian Curtin
10: Kieran Malone
15: Cormac Murray
22: Conor Cleary
14: Euan Lineen
Subs:
24: Micheál Murray for O’Connor (54)
9: Paul Frawley for C Murray (58) (inj)
17: Cormac Devitt for O’Gorman (58) (inj)
25: Paul Keane for Lineen (61)
Doonbeg:
1: Eamon Tubridy
4: Jason Linnane
3: James Killeen
2: Tadhg Lillis
7: Cian O’Mahoney
6: Kevin Pender
5: Conor O’Mahoney
9: Sean Conway
8: Kevin McInerney
11: Mikie Tubridy
15: David Tubridy
12: Cathal Killeen
10: Eoin Killeen
18: Gavin O’Shea
13: Darragh Burns
Subs:
19: Eoghan Tubridy for O’Shea (44)
17: Eoin Conway for Conor O’Mahoney (56)
14: Paul Dillon for C Killeen (59)
Referee: Fearghal Gray (Feakle)
