Having been well beaten twice by the Blues this season, the selectors sensibly set the team up in a cautious formation with Jordan Kane deployed as a sweeper between the full and half back lines. This tactic worked well and the game was tight and low scoring as a result but it was hard to get the ball to our inside forwards at times due to lack of numbers upfront.
In a hard working back-line, John Kelly, Willie Byrne, Ronan Doyle and Paul Byrne played well. In the forwards, although feeding off a limited supply, Shane McGrath, Con Murphy, Niall Humphries, Adam Byrne and David Mulvany kicked good points to leave us trailing by just one at the break – 0-6 to 0-5. Half-time time sub PJ Byrne made an instant impact kicking a fine point within seconds of the re-start and another point by Enda McGrath made it 0-7 apiece. Then the lively Adam Byrne took advantage of a mistake by their keeper to round the last defender and cooly slot home a goal to put Clonmore ahead for the first time on 42 minutes – 1-7 to 0-9.
Unfortunately, the Blues upped their game after the goal and they scored an unanswered 1-4 in the final quarter to record a flattering win. After equalising at 0-10 to 1-7, dangerman Graham Power raced through the defence to send a rocket to the top of Paddy Byrne's net to put them 1-10 to 1-7 ahead on 50 minutes. With 10 minutes to go, there was still time for Clonmore to come back but the lads too often opted to go for goals when points were there for the taking and their goalkeeper pulled off a couple of good saves to deny us.
While the margin of defeat was disappointing, the players should have nothing to fear from the Blues when we meet again in the 2nd Round of the Championship on the weekend of 7-10 August.
Our results against O'Hanrahans so far in 2013 are:
- 25 March ACL: O'Hans 1-13 Clonmore 0-6 (margin 10 points)
- 9 May: SFL Div 2: O'Hans 1-15 Clonmore 0-11 (7 points)
- 1 June: SFL Div 2 S/F: O'Hans 1-13 Clonmore 1-7 (6 points)
TEAM: Paddy Byrne, Paul Hogan John Kelly, Willie Byrne, Paddy Gahan, Ronan Doyle, Paul Byrne, Con Murphy (0-1,f), Enda McGrath (0-1), Adam Byrne (1-1), Collie McGrath, David Mulvany (0-1), Jordan Kane, Niall Humphries (0-1), Shane McGrath (0-1) .Subs: PJ Byrne (0-1) for Collie, Pauric Lawlor for Paul Byrne, Dale McNamara for Enda McGrath.
PHOTO: Action from the Blues game involving Paddy Gahan, Enda McGrath, David Mulvany and Jordan Kane.
