Cometh the hour, cometh the men

Cratloe 1-14   Inagh-Kilnamona 0-14

Five minutes to go in Sunday’s senior hurling championship semi-final at Cusack Park, favourites Cratloe trailed Inagh-Kilnamona by two points. Then Conor McGrath and Cathal McInerney combined for the game’s only goal, the crucial score and one that sent Cratloe through to their third final in four years.

 

Things weren’t looking good for Cratloe when McGrath won possession 50m from goal. Turning sharply he got away from his marker, beat two more Inagh-Kilnamona defenders before passing to McInerney who fired past the advancing Patrick Kelly.

Cratloe went on to add two points and seal victory and a final date against Newmarket on Sunday week. It was a result that clearly pleased their manager Joe McGrath.

“We weren’t too happy with our first half performance. We got off to a grand start with two points against the breeze but we lost our way completely then and we were lucky to be only the five down at half time,” he said shortly after the final whistle.

“We upped our game a bit in the second half and we got a bit more aggressive. The goal came at the right time, with five minutes to go, when we thought our goose was cooked. We can thank our goalie. He made two tremendous saves when Inagh-Kilnamona were really on the front foot. We were just lucky to get on the right side of the result,” McGrath went on.

In the manager’s view Cratloe “were lucky enough to get the break for the goal.”

“Conor (McGrath) had another great chance before that but Patrick Kelly made a great save. If we keep creating the chances we will get one eventually. We were never going to get the three we got last week, the one came at the appropriate time today.”

Getting through to the final “is a tremendous achievement for us, a small club, to get our third in four years.

The group of players put in a tremendous effort and they deserve this. Newmarket have a great tradition behind them. We will look at that in two weeks time,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Inagh-Kilnamona manager Paul Gannon was, understandably, disappointed with the result. “We had a couple of goal chances and they didn’t go our way. We didn’t get any of the breaks on the day. Cratloe worked their goal well, they finished it well. It’s desperately disappointing for us.”

Gannon paid tribute to the Cratloe goalie who denied his side with a couple of important saves.

“Just before half time we had a few chances to stretch the lead. Fair play to Cratloe, the got the job done and we wish them well.”

“The future is bright for Inagh-Kilnamona,” he said, “but that isn’t much consolation today. Most of them will be back at it next year and hopefully someday they will get the reward they deserve.”

Cratloe, playing against the breeze in the opening half, took a two-point lead after five minutes, both scores coming from Conor McGrath. The game was 11 minutes old before Eamonn Glynn opened Inagh-Kilnamona’s account and they were in front at the end of the first quarter after Niall Arthur had pointed twice.

Cratloe responded with like scores from Gearóid Ryan and McGrath before Inagh-Kilnamona hit a purple patch during which they had five unanswered points to go four clear. When the half time whistle sounded they were 0-10 to 0-5 ahead. Shortly before the break Niall Arthur missed two frees.

There was more urgency in Cratloe’s play when the second half got underway and they went into the attack straight away. Sean Collins pointed in the second minute and Conor McGrath followed with a brace from frees to cut the deficit to two with just seven minutes played.

When McGrath landed a 65 in the 12th minute the margin was down to the minimum and Inagh-Kilnamona still hadn’t scored in this half.

Ger Arthur from a free and Eamonn Glynn from play after Arthur’s effort was saved, replied for Inagh-Kilnamona to leave them 0-12 to 0-9 at the three quarter stage. Cathal McInerney and Niall Arthur exchanged points before a Conor McGrath brace left the minimum between the teams with ten minutes remaining.

Inagh-Kilnamona had a great goal chance a minute later but Sean Hayes saved from Eamonn Glynn while, at the other end, Patrick Kelly advanced from his line smartly to save well from Conor McGrath.

When Ger Arthur pointed with six minutes to go, there was a feeling that it might be Inagh-Kilnamona’s day but Cratloe clearly didn’t share that view.

Conor McGrath was some 50m from goal when he won possession from a Michael Hawes clearance. He had only one thing on his mind when he turned and headed for goal. Having got past three defenders he passed to Cathal McInerney and he fired home the game’s only goal and Cratloe were back in front for the first time in 40 minutes. McGrath followed with a point from a 20m free at an acute angle.

A hectic finish followed. When Inagh-Kilnamona won a 20m free to the right of the posts, they called up goalkeeper Patrick Kelly, His effort for a goal was deflected behind for a 65’ which Ger Arthur drove wide. The final score fell to Conor McGrath to land his only point from play in the third minute of injury time.

Team captain Barry Duggan was excellent at full-back for the winners and he had the upper hand in his battle with Cathal Lafferty. Conor Ryan had another excellent game at centre back while Liam Markham also got through a lot of work. Goalkeeper Sean Hayes was excellent throughout.

While the loss of Ronan O’Looney due to a leg injury was a blow to Inagh-Kilnamona, his replacement David Hegarty did well. Dermot Lynch had a fine hour at corner back while the Glynn brothers and Milo Keane were others to impress.

Cratloe: Sean Hayes; John O’Gorman, Barry Duggan, Enda Boyce; Michael Hawes, Conor Ryan, Liam Markham; Martin ‘Ogie’ Murphy, Sean Collins; Sean Chaplin, Paudge Collins, Damian Browne; Cathal McInerney, Conor McGrath, Gearóid Ryan.
Subs: David Ryan for Chaplin (41m); Shane Gleeson for Browne (45m).
Scorers: Conor McGrath (0-11, 9f, 1 65); Cathal McInerney (1-1); Sean Collins, Gearóid Ryan (0-1 each).
Frees: 18; wides: 6; 65s: 1.
Bookings: John O’Gorman (6m) Martin ‘Ogie’ Murphy (27m).
Inagh-Kilnamona: Patrick Kelly; Milo Keane, Jamie Davin, Dermot Lynch; Damian Lafferty, David Hegarty, Brian Glynn; Tomas Kelly, Haulie Vaughan; Ger Arthur, Eamonn Glynn, Eoin Vaughan; Niall Arthur, Cathal Lafferty, Conor Tierney.
Subs: Shane Griffin for H Vaughan (54m);
Scorers: Niall Arthur (0-6, 4f); Ger Arthur (0-5, 2f); Eamonn Glynn (0-3).
Frees: 17;   wides: 11;   65s: 1.
Bookings: Conor Tierney (6m); Patrick Kelly (57m).
Referee: Rory Hickey, Éire Óg.