Clara impress in convincing win but understrength Daingean offered sparse resistance

CLARA provided further evidence of very good health but will be very conscious of the surprisingly sparse resistance provided by Daingean in a one sided Senior “B” Football Championship at Clara on Saturday afternoon.

Tullamore Court Hotel Senior “B” Football Championship Round 2

Clara 0-19

Daingean 1-6

After going 1-1 behind early on, Clara were the better side by a country mile and from an early stage, we knew that they were going to win one. Unfortunately it appeared that Daingean also knew this and the impression that they wrote this game off and are focusing on the battles ahead is impossible to avoid.

Once Clara opened up their legs in the first half, Daingean's opposition was passive, their body language not right – and this was evident in a variety of tellingly symbolic, important ways. They were missing key players in county star Shane Tierney, Cian Bracken, Ryan Conway, Ciaran McEvoy, Scott Milne but Clara were also down players – Cormac Delaney only came on as a sub, Ed Cullen is out with injury, Carl Stewart hasn't got back into action after coming up from Australia and there is concern if he will as he deals with a knee injury while Colm Doyle's and Patrick Phelan's season is over with cruciate injuries. Marcas Dalton went off injured at half time, having suffered a fierce hit early in the first half, and had the result been in any sort of doubt, he may have been asked to soldier through the pain barrier.

Tierney was togged out and the fact that Daingean didn't throw him into the fray tells its own story – if they were really serious about winning this, they would have risked him and it is inconceivable that once he was togged out, he wouldn't have been used in a must win game.

It was Daingean's first game and with four qualifying for the semi-final, the defeat is far from fatal. Time will be the adjudicator but if they were to write any game off, this was the one to do it with though it was still a disappointing, substandard display from them. In fairness to Daingean, they can't cushion the absence of five starters and that is the one mitigating factor in this display and overall effort levels.

The statistic that not only did no Daingean forward manage a score from play but rarely looked like doing so speaks volumes about where they were but to focus on their shortcomings is to do an injustice to Clara.

A long time top flight senior team, Clara are rebuilding and are clearly laying a solid foundation for the future. A group defeat by Daingean was the first real warning shot for Clara last year that they were not right at that stage and they were duly taken out by Cappincur in the semi-final. Daingean's whole approach and work ethic was a mile off where they were at that stage last year but Clara do look to be in significantly better health. Their football is a lot more incisive, their movement better, their whole demeanour looks good and they have hit the ground running.

With two wins out of two and the Division 2 Football League in the bag, Clara are justifiably championship favourites, the team to beat but as always with them, encouraging early form comes with a major caveat – it is knockout football in O'Connor Park and how they respond if a side is breathing down their neck inside the last ten minutes that will dictate their year and show us exactly how healthy they are.

They are the form side in this grade so far and are doing what they need to do. Daingean can afford this defeat and they will be a different side with Shane Tierney on the field – he has brought his football to an entirely new level with Offaly this year and will be worth anything up to half a dozen points to them. It is certainly hard to envisage the Daingean attack shooting blanks with him on the field but it remains to be seen if you can get away with this type of performance and there isn't a price to be paid – they more than likely will and should emerge as semi-final contenders anyway but this sort of display never does a side any good.

It had all started so positively for Daingean as Charlie Hayes slotted over a fourth minute free and midfielder Cathal Ryan got a super sixth minute goal, racing onto a ball and blasting to the net. By the time, Charlie Hayes got their second point from a 29^th minute free, Clara had 11 points on the board and had ran them ragged. Playing some excellent, controlled, fast football, Clara were very good in this period, with Josh Fleming on fire up front and Jack Reynolds and Thomas Deehan very effective beside him – the full forward line kicked ten of Clara's points.

It was 0-11 to 1-2 at half time and Clara killed it off with three quick second half points. Daingean did have a brief purple patch around the three quarter mark when they at least showed some semblance of fight and started going for the ball, trying to create something. Jamie Hayes got a two point free and they wasted another couple of chances but their revival was very illusionary.

Clara kicked the next three points, ran in subs, resisted any temptation to go for goals as it all petered out in a game that neither side learnt much from but the winners' confidence did receive a welcome boost.

MATCH ANALYSIS

MAN OF THE MATCH

Graham Guilfoyle (Clara): Clara had three contenders in each zone in the field. Alan Gavin was tremendous in their defence, marking very well and coming out regularly with the ball as well as kicking two points. At the other end of the field, Josh Fleming was superbly sharp in their attack, kicking four of his six points from play, showing for the ball and using it very well, knowing when to go for his score and when to lay it off.

The selection is a man in the middle of it all, a player in the veteran stages of a long career, Graham Guilfoyle. Now in his mid 30s, Guilfoyle is deceptively fit. He looks like he can't cover the ground the way he once did and he can't but his influence on this game was powerful. Playing at midfield, he conserved his energy, letting some of the younger players do the hard running, but he still showed up all over the place, deep in defence and in advanced forward territory. He won high ball, broke the ball and was so composed in possession. He got a great two pointer and the contribution of their elder statesmen, Guilfoyle and Thomas Deehan, who got two points, is very important to Clara's young guns. Guilfoyle essentially ran this game – he did this on the ball and was like a general off the ball, telling players when to go and where to give the ball.

David Falsey also put in a very effective shift at midfield in a game where most players did their job for Clara – Conor Doyle was very good before being rested while Daingean were just off the pace as unit on the day with very few players reaching the level they will need to if they are to win this championship.

THE SCORERS

Daingean: Josh Fleming 0-6 (2f), Graham Guilfoyle 0-3 (1 x 2p and 1f), Thomas Deehan, Alan Gavin and Jack Reynolds 0-2 each, David Falsey, Darragh McKeon, Cormac Delaney, Barry Egan 0-1 each.

Daingean: Cathal Ryan 1-0, Charlie Hayes (2f) and Jamie Hayes (1 x 2pf) 0-2 each, Adam Bolger and Cian Reilly 0-1 each.

THE TEAMS

CLARA: Adam Scanlon; Alan Gavin, Christian McKeon, Ryan Carroll; Ben Loughran, Marcas Dalton, Conor Doyle; David Falsey, Graham Guilfoyle; Darragh McKeon, Adam Kelly, Conor Egan; Jack Reynolds, Josh Fleming, Thomas Deehan. Subs – Myles Handy for Dalton, inj. (HT), Kevin Minnock for Doyle (37m), Barry Egan for Deehan (43m), Cormac Delaney for Fleming (53m), Aaron Ngo for Guilfoyle (55m).

DAINGEAN: Conan Curley; Padraig Ferguson, Adam Bolger, Stephen Joyce; Aaron Longworth, David Walsh, Casey Evans; Cathal Ryan, Cian Reilly; Samuel Wright, Odhran Connolly, Aran Byrne; Charlie Hayes, Jamie Hayes, Jack Connolly. Subs – Shane Marsden for Byrne (37m), James Kelly for Longworth (53m), Aaron Longworth for Evans (55m).

Referee – Ger Keyes, Shamrocks.

REFEREE WATCH

Ger Keyes is a very competent referee and it is great that suggestions that he was hanging up his whistle last year did not materialise. He handled this fixture very well, managing the new rules and controlling proceedings. He also did very well when awarding Clara a 25^th minute penalty after Josh Fleming went down. It was never a penalty in a month of Sunday's as Fleming was heading to ground anyway and the contact was innocuous. Keyes immediately consulted with umpires and cancelled the penalty, awarding a free in midfield for a tackle on Graham Guilfoyle – though he perhaps should have given Clara a 14 metre tap over advanced mark as Fleming had made a stunning fetch from Guilfoyle's first delivery in.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

There was no big moment as such but Graham Guilfoyle's 19^th minute two pointer was important – it was the only two pointer from play, gave Clara a 0-6 to 1-1 lead and they drove it on from here.

VENUE WATCH

Clara had their facilities very well prepared and hosted the fixture professionally.

WHAT'S NEXT

Daingean host Gracefield in round 3 while Clara have their bye and have a gap until they travel to Gracefield on August 29.

STATISTICS

Wides: Clara – 5 (3 in first half); Daingean – 7 (1 in first half).

Yellow cards: Clara – 0; Daingean – 1 (David Walsh).

Black cards: 0.

Red cards: 0.