Stronger Éire Óg side win battle of the towns

The morning dew was still resting on the well manicured facilities of St Joseph’s GAA grounds in Gurteen on Saturday morning as Éire Óg with a positive opening ten minutes secured the Féile B title at the expense of St Joseph’s Miltown.
Conor Perrill was the early hero for the Ennis side as he struck for (1-1) in the opening minutes as the skilful fast moving Charlie Doherty was the goal maker as Perrill finished off the chance.
This sequence of scores hit Miltown hard as they needed a couple of plays to get settled and create their first scoring opportunity which was finished by Eoin Devanney. However, worse was to come for the West Clare side as Charlie Doherty left two markers in his wake to slot home Éire Óg’s second goal.
Colin Hayes was on hand to deny Doherty a third Éire Óg goal and indeed it was an important save as it stifled Éire Óg somewhat for the remainder of the first half.
Michael Murphy’s charges grew in confidence in the last five minutes of the first half with sweeping moves that just broke down at the business end due to the stronger Éire Óg defence.
Eoin Devanney, Caimin Jones and Gavin Twomey took the game to the Ennis side with well taken points opposed to just a one point response from Evan Casey to leave Miltown (2-2) to (0-4) ahead at the break.
The half time break did little to increase the performance of Miltown as Charlie Doherty stretched the Éire Óg lead to five points. For the following six minutes Miltown dominated the play and were camped in Éire Óg’s half of the field but were unable to score and eventually the counter attacks began to go the way of Éire Óg.
A five man move which commenced at the back ended with Oscar Reynolds finishing off the game as a viable contest. Conor Perrill (2) and Eoin Devanney kept the scoring efforts going as Éire Óg raced nine points clear with two minutes remaining in normal time.
To the credit of Miltown they kept in the game as Eoin Devanney sent over a free just before a piece of real skill by Devanney set up Caimin Jones who scored a deserved goal for St Joseph’s in the dying moments of the game.
The stronger better balanced Éire Óg side who possessed just that bit more skill in their forward ranks that proved too much for Miltown decided the result. Best for the winners were Cian Considine, Roan McDermott, Tom Kavanagh, Niall McMahon, top scorer Conor Perrill, Evan Casey, Oscar Reynolds and Charlie Doherty.
St Joseph’s Miltown had solid efforts from Eoin Devanney, Steven Murphy, Caimin Jones, Iarla Meade. Niall Twomey and Gavin Twomey.

Éire Óg: Luke Malice, Cormac Kennedy, Cian Considine, Brian Kavanagh, Darren Moroney, Roan McDermott, Tom Kavanagh (Capt), Rian Mulcahy, Niall McMahon, Conor Perrill (1-3), Rian Hickey, Evan Casey (0-1), Michael Roche, Cathal Lynch, Charlie Doherty (1-1). Subs: Sean Hennessy, David Loftus, Ferdia Hayes, Conor Farrell, Marco Cleary, Ethan Boyle, James O’Dwyer, Oscar Reynolds (1-0), Patrick Roche.

St Joseph’s Miltown: Colin Hayes, James Downes, Iarla Meade, Paudi Killeen, Steven Murphy, Niall Twomey, Ronan Keavey, Ralph Whelehan, Gavin Twomey (0-1), Conor Neylon, Eoin Devanney (0-3), Eoghan Hogan, James Cogan, Darragh Hogan, Caimin Jones (1-1). Subs: Alex O’Brien, Oisin McCarthy, Tony Carroll, Sean McMahon.

Referee: Joe Kelly (Cooraclare)

by Michael O’Connor