Clonoe see off Moy in top two battle

Clonoe 4-24 Moy  2-15

A STATEMENT of intent if there was ever one. Table-toppers Clonoe outscored their opponents Moy by 1-17 to 0-4 in a devastating second-half performance to remain at the summit of the Division Two table last Friday evening at O’Rahilly Park.

This wasn’t quite the de facto league decider, but it wasn’t far from it. Moy have slipped down to third position, and if Clonoe do the business against second-placed Eglish this Wednesday night, it would take a subsequent collapse of almost unprecedented proportions to scupper their march towards the title.

They actually trailed at half-time against the Moy. It had been a veritable free-for-all to that point – five goals, four gorgeous two-pointers from Michael Conroy, fairly casual defending at both ends, and when all was said and done, the Moy led by 2-11 to 3-7. From a neutral perspective, it had been quite something.

Clonoe composed themselves at the break – they had the benefit of a significant wind advantage to come, and if they tightened things up at the back, they knew that that would be half the battle.

And for the remainder of the contest, they were utterly dominant – Connor McAliskey and Tommy Taggart, both outstanding, landing a sequence of two-pointers midway through the second-half as Moy’s challenge threaten to unravel, and then the outcome was well and truly put to bed with a 52nd minute goal from Taggart, who scored 2-3 in total. Heavily involved in the build-up was old-timer PJ Lavery, who really made his experience count when sprung from the bench in the second-half.

After that goal, Clonoe’s fourth of the day, it was just a question of how much. They fired over late points from all angles to compound a disappointing evening for the Moy, though there was little in the way of celebrating at the final whistle from the Clonoe contingent with an equally important clash against Eglish now only two days away.

From the word go, it was evident that this wasn’t going to be a low-scoring affair. Moy got the show on the road with a fortuitous enough goal in the third minute after Ryan Coleman’s pointed effort somehow ended up in the back of the net, but it must be said that they looked sharp in attack and led 1-2 to 0-1 early on after Michael Conroy’s first two-pointer of the day.

Clonoe got their first goal of the game when Danny McNulty shrugged off the challenges of two Moy defenders before unleashing an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net, after which there was a period where the points flowed at both ends. To be fair, it wasn’t just standoffish defending – both teams were laden with attacking menace.

Liam McGeary was on hand for Moy’s second goal of the game, preceding a Clonoe purple patch where the home side nailed 2-1 without reply, the goals on this occasion coming from corner-back James Taggart and the impressive Tommy Taggart.

The O’Rahilly’s now led by 3-5 to 2-5 heading into the final ten minutes of the half, but the Moy were making hay with the wind advantage and a brace of two-pointers from Conroy and further scores from Diarmuid McKeown and Ryan Lavery pushed their side into a narrow half-time lead.

It had been breathless stuff, and there was little obvious indication that the second half would be any different, aside from the wind factor.

But it was readily apparent from the restart that Clonoe really meant business – hard-running from the likes of Shea Coney and Declan McClure instigating scores, while a fired-up Connor McAliskey showed immense fortitude to get back on his feet and pop the ball between the posts after latching onto a long ball from deep in the 40th minute.

The signs were looking ominous from a Moy perspective, even though they’d tagged on two further points by that stage themselves, and Clonoe made their move when they bagged three two-pointers in as many minutes courtesy of McAliskey (twice) and Tommy Taggart.

Taggart’s second goal of the day established a 4-18 to 2-15 lead with fewer than 10 minutes remaining, and the game was as good as over. It was almost exhibition stuff from Clonoe at this stage – Danny McNulty steered over a crowd-pleasing effort from an unforgiving angle before late points from Darragh McGrath, Ryan Quinn and Ryan Morrow set the seal on a vintage second-half performance. Impressive stuff from Clonoe but as they well know, nothing’s won yet…

Scorers

Clonoe: Tommy Taggart (2-3, 1 2pt), Danny McNulty (1-5, 1 2pt), Connor McAliskey (0-6, 1 2pt, 1 2ptf, 1f), Ciaran Corr (0-3, 1 2pt, 1m), James Taggart (1-0), Ryan McCabe and Ryan Morrow (0-2 each), Ryan Quinn (0-2, 1 2pt), Darragh McGrath (0-1)

Moy: Michael Conroy (0-10, 1 2pt, 3 2ptf, 1f), Ryan Coleman and Liam McGeary (1-0 each), Patrick McGeary (0-2), Diarmuid McKeown, Declan Conroy and Ryan Lavery (0-1 each)

Teams

Clonoe: Michael O’Neill, James Taggart, Conall Coyle, Shane Hughes, Shea Coney, Ronan Corey, Darragh McGrath, Declan McClure, Ryan Morrow, Ryan McCabe, Connor McAliskey, Ciaran Corr, Tommy Taggart, Daniel McNulty, Eoghan Mansell. Subs: PJ Lavery for Mansell, Ryan Quinn for McClure, Padraig Hanna for J Taggart, Daire Devlin for McAliskey.

Moy: Philip Mallon, Mark Gribbin, Steve Donaghy, Patrick Lavery, Diarmuid McKeown, Eunan Deeney, Ronan O’Hanlon, Adam Donaghy, Declan Conroy, Patrick McGeary, Ryan Coleman, Connor Mackle, Liam McGeary, Michael Conroy, Jamie Coleman. Subs: Ryan Lavery for Mackle, Diarmuid Quinn for O’Hanlon.

Referee: Mark O’Neill (Cookstown)