Clonbur footballers break new ground in champion style
Date Published: {J}
Clonbur 1-8Derrktresk 1-7
CIARAN TIERNEY AT CROKE PARK
A storming final quarter in which they hit three unanswered points saw Clonbur come from two points down to become the first Galway side in history to win the All-Ireland Junior Club football title in a thrilling finish at Croke Park on Sunday.
After all of the shenanigans and sideshows which dominated the build-up, the Galway and Tyrone champions served up a pulsating final which left the Derrytresk camp wondering what might have been had they not been forced to field without seven suspended players.
Emotions were running high among the Derrytresk contingent from the outset and for long periods of this game it looked as though the Tyrone men would be triumphant, despite the fallout from their controversial semi-final win which ensured their team management and substitutes were banned from the sideline.
Clonbur let the occasion get to them in the first-half and visibly struggled to cope with Derrytresk’s robust defending, while a clear lack of scoring options ensured that captain and free-taker Eoin Joyce was the only Clonbur man to find the target in the opening period.
Derrytresk fully deserved a four point interval lead (1-4 to 0-3) and the damage could have been even worse from a Clonbur point of view had goalkeeper Paraic Walsh not made a stunning save to deny a goal-bound Niall Gavin penalty, Derrytresk’s second spot-kick in as many minutes, on the quarter-hour mark.
Had Gavin’s low drive gone in, the Ulster champions would have taken an eight point lead (2-3 to 0-1) and there really would have been no way back for Clonbur – even with 45 minutes left on the clock.
Scores were hard to come by throughout the hour, but it is to Clonbur’s credit that the Connacht champions kept their composure after a difficult first half, before producing the kind of football they are capable of in the second period.
Central to their revival was a storming second half performance by midfielder Eamon O Cuiv, who had made little impact in the opening 30 minutes, while there were also towering performances from Trevor Lydon, Pat Lambe, Liam Kearney, and veteran Gerry Kyne on a memorable day for the club.
Kyne read the game brilliantly. He was deployed as an extra man in a defence in which full-back Declan Kyne was solid under some early Derrytresk pressure, while Clonbur could make little headway against the massed Ulster defence whenever they drove up the field early on.Centre forward Joseph McKee, who had his suspension overturned on Tuesday night, opened Derrytresk’s account on six minutes.
McKee added his second after a Conor O’Neill shot fell kindly off the left upright for his side’s second score, while a visibly struggling Clonbur only had one Joyce free to show for their efforts in the first quarter.
The Derrytresk followers were on a high when Pat Campbell was hauled down inside the area after 13 minutes and Gavin rammed the resultant penalty low and right past Walsh for the game’s opening goal.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.