Clonoe cruise past ‘Castle to wrap up Divsion 2 title

Clonoe 2-22 Greencastle 0-7

By Niall Gartland

CLONOE’S return to Division One football was rubberstamped with last Wednesday evening’s lop-sided victory over Greencastle at O’Rahilly Park, a game that in truth was rather a non-event.

It wasn’t entirely one-way traffic but it wasn’t a million miles off it and the O’Rahilly’s had the game sewn up long, long before the final whistle, after which the celebrations could begin – sort of.

Having clinched the league title a game in advance, the official presentation was made after yesterday’s final-round encounter against Beragh, and there’s no disputing that Clonoe are thoroughly deserving champions.

In recent weeks they claimed resounding victories over their nearest challengers, Clonoe and Moy, and after a somewhat flat showing against rivals Coalisland, they were back to their very best against the lads from the ‘Castle last Wednesday.

To be fair to Greencastle, the game – from their perspective anyway – was your classic dead rubber as they already knew their league fate, nestled among the teams outside the promotion and play-off spots. Coincidentally, they’re set for a repeat meeting against Clonoe in the first-round of the championship and it’ll be interesting to see how they shape up on that occasion.

Clonoe will be dreaming of a league and championship double and they’re certainly an impressive outfit. Against Greencastle they could afford to rest Connor McAliskey and Shea Coney, while captain Declan McClure was whipped off at half-time, but they still ran riot on the scoreboard, racking up 2-22 across the hour.

And perhaps their best performer on the evening was one of the players who’s nromally sprung from the bench – stalwart PJ Lavery was granted a starting berth, and the two-time O’Neill Cup champion delivered a performance that oozed class from the half-forward line, lending a hand in God-knows-how-many scores.

From early doors, it was evident that Clonoe were in no mood to leave things to chance. With Declan McClure and Ryan Morrow lording the skies, they picked off early points from Ryan Quinn, Ciaran Corr and Darragh McGrath.

Greencastle opened their account from Mark Carson, who was lively throughout, but the O’Rahilly’s pressed the accelerator and a goal from Ryan McCabe buttressed by a flurry of points from Ronan Corey (twice) Tommy Taggart (also twice), Ciaran Corr and Rhys Donnelly opened up a virtually insurmountable 1-12 to 0-1 lead by the 22nd minute.

Needless to say their fluidity in attack was exceptional. Carson landed a two-point free and followed that up with a fine point from play, steering the ball between the posts between the posts from a tricky angle, though Clonoe finished the first-half strongly with scores from corner-back Padraig Hanna, Ryan Quinn and Ryan McCabe. Someone who hasn’t been mention to this point is Danny McNulty, who was always clever and unselfishness in possession.

Anyway, the game was as good as over at the half-time whistle, Clonoe holding a 1-15 to 0-4 advantage on the scoreboard.

Clonoe were nowhere near as ruthless after the break, spurning a few goal chances and hitting a scattering of wides, but the intensity levels had dropped generally, unsurprisingly in the context.

A sublime point from Ryan Morrow, dummying his man before taking aim with the outside of the boot, was arguably the score of the game, while there were also well-worked efforts from sub Fintan McClure and McCabe.

Greencastle kept plugging away with Eoghan Conway showing well, and they landed a couple of scores of their own – a spectacular effort from Gavin Slane and a two-pointer from Dan Tuohey.

Still, it was immaterial as far as the final outcome was concerned and Clonoe finished with a flourish with late points from Rhys Donnelly and Daire Devlin as injury-time approached. And then the coup de grace as Devlin landed Clonoe’s second goal of the game to set the seal on a comprehensive victory and a deserved Division Two triumph.

Scorers

Clonoe: Ryan McCabe (1-2), Daire Devlin (1-1), Rhys Donnelly (0-3), Tommy Taggart (0-3, 1 ‘45’, 1f), Ronan Corey (0-3, 1 2pt, 1f), Darragh McGrath and Ciaran Corr (0-2 each), Ryan Quinn (0-2f), Ryan Morrow (0-2, 1 2pt), FIntan McClure and Padraig Hanna (0-1 each)

Greencastle: Mark Carson (0-4, 1 2ptf, 1f), Dan Tuohey (0-2, 1 2pt), Gavin Slane (0-1)

Teams

Clonoe: Michael O’Neill, Padraig Hanna, Conall Coyle, Shane Hughes, Darragh McGrath, Ronan Corey, Declan McClure, Ryan Morrow, PJ Lavery, Rhys Donnell, Danny McNulty, Ryan McCabe, Ryan Quinn, Tommy Taggart, Ciaran Corr. Subs: Fintan McClure for D McClure, Michael O’Neill for Hughes, Cormac Convery for Corey, Daire Devlin for Corr, MJ Mansell for McNulty.

Greencastle: Dara McDermott, Matthew McGlinchey, Seamus Warnock, Ronan Hollywood, David Morris, Barry McGarvey, Eoghan Conway, Daniel McCrory, Sean Conneely, Ryan Coyle, Dan Tuohey, Caolan Tuohey, Sean Og Teague, Mark Carson, Gavin Slane.

Referee: Justin McKenna (Dungannon)