Moycullen U21s too strong for Clifden in West Board B final
Date Published: 18-Apr-2012
Dara Bradley in Oughterard
MOYCULLEN prevailed in the ‘Battle of Connemara’ to deservedly claim the Supervalu U21B West Board championship final with six points to spare over Clifden at Oughterard on Friday evening.
The winners got off to a sluggish start and for the first 20 minutes were in danger of this game passing them by, but Clifden were downright wasteful with possession and just weren’t clinical enough to pile early pressure on Moycullen, the pre-match favourites who fielded half a dozen from the club’s senior squad.
Clifden totally cleaned up around centre-field, winning a dozen of the 16 first-half kick-outs – wing-back David Black was prominent in cleaning up the breaking ball while midfielder Eamonn McCann showed glimpses of his aerial prowess – but they coughed up possession so cheaply and frequently that it didn’t matter to Moycullen that they were flagging in this department, even on their own kick-outs.
Why bother trying to win the ball when the opposition is going to give it back to you anyway? John McDonagh’s charges had enough possession to rack up a decent lead in the opening spell but a lack of concentration, sloppy passing and poor delivery into the forwards was to cost them dearly later on. They were missing the presence of county minor, sharpshooter Ger Gibbons, too.
The slippery conditions from the heavy downpour of rain just before throw-in didn’t help either sides’ cause but Moycullen would have been happier tied three points apiece with 10 minutes to go to the break.
A brace from Clifden wing-forward Chris Holmes and a white flag from team-mate Jack Vaughan were cancelled out by points from the hardworking Moycullen captain David Wynn, his brother James, after a mistake by Clifden full-back Eoghan Kilkenny, and Fergus Kerrigan, who also capitalised on the opposition giving the ball away too easily. Moycullen manager Donal Byrnes’ charges then turned on the style, upping the ante to such an extent that they outscored Clifden by 1-3 to 0-1 in the lead up to the break; and from there on they never looked like losing.
Kerrigan chipped in with a point; and then showed what Moycullen could do if they got to grips with the aerial battle – the wing-forward rose tallest and caught the resulting kick-out clean, laid off quick ball to corner forward Daniel Ferns, who played a dinky one-two with Patrick Bane before defying a tight angle and dispatching past ‘keeper Niall Staunton for the game’s first of five three-pointers.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.