Flying Cloghan too strong for St Vincent's

Cloghan: 2-16 

St Vincent’s: 1-4 

A BRILLIANT Cloghan team proved way too strong when they recorded a comprehensive win over St Vincent's in the Offaly U-15 Football Championship final in Faithful Fields, Kilcormac on Tuesday night.

Displayed a great work ethic and playing a great brand of passing football, Cloghan were clear masters on a very cold evening and they had this title in the bag from a long way out.

Cloghan have emerged as a real force on the underage football scene in Offaly in the past few years. While their stronghold is St Rynagh's Football Club, they have the pick of a number of permission players from some parishes in south Offaly – areas where football isn't catered for. Their starting team here included ten players from St Rynagh's, two each from Lusmagh and Ballyskeach-Killavilla, one from Drumcullen and they were just very strong on the evening.

The quality of some of their football just took the breath away and while the Daingean parish outfit of St Vincent's battled with everything they had, they just couldn't live with them on the evening.

St Vincent's competed well in the opening few minutes and were level at 0-2 each after seven minutes but Cloghan took complete control after this. Robert Carney, Aaron Molloy, Darragh Scully and Eanna Mulhare all pointed as they led by 0-7 to 0-2 at the water break and by half time, the gap was 0-9 to 0-2.

St Vincent's were up against it and within a few minutes of the restart, they were on a damage limitation exercise. Cloghan got five points without reply to lead by 0-14 to 0-2 and then Eanna Mulhare got a fine goal in the 40th minute.

St Vincent's kept plugging away and Cian Bracken opened their second half account but it was only a brief respise. Fionn Carney got their second goal to make it 2-14 to 0-3 and it petered out fairly tamely with Cian Bracken getting a late consolation goal for Sf Vincent's from a penalty.

The Scorers 

Cloghan: Eanna Mulhare 1-4 (0-2 Frees), Aaron Molloy 0-5, Darragh Scully 0-4, Fionn Carney 1-1, Robert Carney 0-1, Niall Flannery 0-1. 

St Vincent’s: Cian Bracken 1-3 (1-0 Penalty, 0-3 Frees), Shane Marsden 0-1. 

The Teams 

Cloghan: Callum Hogan; Sean Lyons, Michael Boylan, Paul Cannon; Niall Flannery (Capt.), Cormac Leonard, Daniel Healy (Vice Capt.); Luke Bowe, Robert Carney; Eanna Mulhare, Darragh Scully, Harry Grant; James Hennessy, Aaron Molloy, Fionn Carney.  Subs: Tadgh Sheahan for James Hennessy (47 mins), Brooklyn McDermott for Niall Flannery (Blood Subs – 47 mins), Shay Kavanagh for Paul Cannon (47 mins), Niall Flannery for Brooklyn McDermott (50 mins), Cillian McGarvey for Eanna Mulhare (53 mins), Brooklyn McDermott for Sean Lyons (54 mins), Ivan Grant for Callum Hogan (58 mins). 

St Vincent’s: Tristan Dunne; Tadgh Kelly, Charlie Burns, Dylan Dunne; Cormac Whittle, Shane Marsden, Cian O’Connor; Paul Conway, Finn McGuinness (Capt..); Daniel Scally, Andrew Minnock, Darragh Sullivan; Cian Bracken, James Scully, Jack Gowran. Subs: David Darcy for James Scully (37 mins), Jack Larkin for Paul Conway (58 mins). 

Referee: Brian Lowry (Shamrocks).