This was a night the Clonmore Minors will want to forget as they were unrecognisable from the team that produced an inspired display to defeat Myshall a fortnight ago. The Blues were looking for their first win of the season and they looked the hungrier side on their home patch at Deerpark. In contrast, a string of missed chances seemed to drain the confidence out of this talented Clonmore team and the harder they tried the worse it got.
It was one of those games when nothing went right from the start – our tale of woe can be summed up by by 17 wides, two shots off the post and a disallowed goal at a vital stage in the second half. There were long periods when we owned the ball but just couldn't score. At the other end, the Blues had a few deadly forwards who punished us repeatedly – no 15, Harry Walker (son of Gavin), scored 2-5 and centre forward, Keelan Lacey, was a constant threat.
Having missed a load of chances in the first half, it was no surprise that we went in losing by 1-5 to 0-3 at half-time, our points coming from Tom, Eoin and a Francis free. In the third quarter, we upped our game and the Blues could hardly get out of their half but we failed to score and they hit two points on the break to leave the score 1-7 to 0-3 on 45mins. A goal at that stage could have sparked a Clonmore revival and one came when Josh Bowes lobbed a high ball into the square and Eoin Byrne punched it to the net. Even thought the neutral umpire raised the green flag, Pat Keogh disallowed it – a harsh decision considering the ball was kicked from distance and a player can enter the square as soon as the ball is kicked in open play. Two good points by Josh sparked a mini-revival – 1-7 to 0-5 – but that was quashed when Walker scored his second goal on 53 minutes to put the Blues 2-9 to 0-5 ahead.
The Clonmore lads continued to try their best and late substitutes Sean Deery and Jonathan Byrne made an instant impact with Sean setting up Eoin for our long awaited goal and Jonathan kicking a good point to take the bad look off the scoreboard. On the positive side, CJ Wybrant had an outstanding game in goal, all of the backs battled hard and Luke Mullen won an amount of ball at midfield. Up front Eoin Byrne and Tom Pollard worked tirelessly but too many times players took the wrong option, shooting from distance or bad angles when team mates were better placed.
All we can do is move on in the knowledge that this is a hugely talented young team who just had a bad day at the office – as Van Morrison says 'My Mama told me there'd be days like this". Onwards and upwards.
Clonmore: CJ Wybrant, Rory Maguire, Keane Doyle, Cormac Connolly, Josh Bowes (0-2), Rory McKiernan, Sean Deay, Cian Heffernan, Luke Mullen, Cormac Malee, Tom Pollard (0-1), Daniel Quigley, Luke Connolly, Francis Whelan (0-1,f), Eoin Byrne (1-2). Subs: Matt Cullen for Luke C, Dan Cashen for Daniel, Keith Bowes for Francis, Jonathan Byrne, for Cian, Sean Deery for Cormac.
O'Hanrahans: Andrew, Jayo Keating, Kyle Bowe, Levi Carey, Kevin Komono, Cole Walker, Paddy Fitz (0-1), Cameron Lacey, Jamie Kealy, Paddy Mannion (0-1), Keelan Lacey (0-1), Jordan Nolan, Craig O'Neill, Lorcan Thompson (0-3, 1f), Harry Walker (2-5). Subs: Justin Kehoe, Adrian Byrne, Joe Doran.
Referee: Pat Keogh (Rathvilly)
PHOTO: Luke Mullen has impressed with his high high fielding and strong running for the Minors this year and won a lot of possession around midfield against O'Hanrahans.
