Clonmore GFC

With Eoin Byrne on fire in the first half, scoring 1-3, Clonmore led by 3-5 to 1-7 a half-time - the other goals coming from Jake Hickey and Francis Whelan. Tullow's central forwards - number 11 TJ Kavanagh and 14 Ross Hanley were a handful for the youthful Clonmore defence and caused us serious problems throughout the game.

While the scoring in the first half was high, it paled into insignificance compared with the second - 10 goals were shared by the two teams and nearly as many more missed in a game where the forwards on both sides definitely had the beating of their men. Credit to the goalkeepers, Melvyn Kinch and Jeremy Berry, who also pulled off some good saves to keep the score down. 

The second half "goal fest" started in the 31st minute when Sean Deay raced through the middle to place a clever shot into the bottom corner. From there to the end it was tit-for-tat as each time we scored a goal they went and got one back and in fact Tullow levelled the score at 5-5 to 4-8 on 45 minutes. 

By the end of normal time, Clonmore had extended the lead to 7-7 to 5-8 with more goals from Tom Pollard, Jake Hickey and Francis Whelan (1-1). That should have been the end of the drama but Referee, Enda Hulton, played a further 5 minutes for no obvious reason and not surprisingly, Tullow scored another 1-1 to reduce our lead to a dangerous one of just two points on 63 minutes - 7-7 to 6-9.

It has to be said that the backs played out of their skins in the dying minutes to keep out the determined Tullowmen. After surviving a few more scares, we broke away to draw a penalty which Tom Pollard put away expertly to finish the game on 65 mins.

Team: Melvyn Kinch, Matt Cullen, Rory Maguire, Jonathan Byrne, Luke Connolly, Josh Bowes, Cormac Connolly, Larry Doyle, Sean Deay (1-1,1f), Cormac Malee, Jake Hickey (2-0), Tom Pollard (2-1, 1pen), Francis Whelan (2-3), Daniel Quigley, Eoin Byrne (1-3). Subs: Sean Tomkins for Jonathan, Daniel Cashen for Daniel Q, Sean Deery for Francis, Keith Bowes for Luke, Daniel Q for Cormac Malee.