Durnin bags two goals as Clane lift Division 3 title
Clane's Eamonn Fitzgerald drives at Leixlip from midfield
Clane came out on top over Leixlip to claim the Westgrove Hotel Senior hurling Division 3 title in the second of Sunday’s six-goal thrillers at Manguard Park.
Clane looked to be slight favourites before this one, given their unbeaten record in the league phase. This included a narrow one-point win over Sunday’s opponents back in March.
They came out of the blocks the quickest, and many amongst the crowd thought captain Ethan Smith had scored the game’s first goal after 40 seconds.
The wing-forward’s low-driven effort beat James Nealon but went narrowly wide and into the side netting.
The Clane crowd wouldn’t have long to wait, however, before celebrating the first of the afternoon’s green flags.
The sides traded scores in the early exchanges, with Clane maintaining a two-point lead. That lead was extended to five when, after a melee of bodies broke out in front of the Leixlip goal, Clane’s Daniel Malone managed to wriggle free.
The excellent Malone had one thing on his mind and made no mistake in hammering the ball into the back of the net.
Within seconds, Clane had the ball in the back of the net. From the resulting kickout, the marauding Hugh Muldoon ducked and dived through the Leixlip defence, before laying the ball off to the oncoming Callum Durnin.
Durnin came like a freight train and unleashed an unstoppable strike into the bottom corner.
They led by eight at the interval and looked very comfortable in doing so.
Leixlip, who had offered little in terms of offense in the opening 25 minutes, notched the final two scores of the first half, and started the second in a similar fashion.
Ian Murphy managed to get the first score of the half for Leixlip, and he got his team’s first goal shortly afterward.
A nice bit of play between Murphy and Brian Nicholson resulted in the former being all alone with Clane keeper Jack O’Dea. Murphy’s awkward bounding effort just evaded O’Dea and found the back of the net.
Leixlip had their tails up but were pegged back again by Clane’s third and final goal in the 38th minute.
Neil Vizzard received the ball in the corner, and under severe pressure from Leixlip man Adrian Smith.
Vizzard did extremely well to wriggle free, before laying the ball off to his teammate Callum Durnin.
Akin to his first goal, Durnin had the legs to burn his man and the skill to rifle an unstoppable strike past the keeper, this time into the top-left corner.
It was his second goal, and Clane’s third. It was undoubtedly the pick of the lot.
The game looked all but over at this point, however Leixlip rallied and gave the eventual victors some nervous moments.
Two quickfire goals from Tomas Seale and Eoin McManus made it a nervy finale from Clane, but they eventually pulled away again to emerge as deserving winners.
Jack O’Dea, Ben O’Dea, Diarmuid Finn, Eoghan Little, Adam Corbett, Michael Cahalane, Cillian Ryan, Eamonn Fitzgerald (0-1), Daniel Malone (1-1), Ethan Smith, Aaron Connolly, Hugh Muldoon (0-3), Callum Durnin (2-1), Ben Muldoon (0-6, 2f), Neil Vizzard (0-3).
Paddy Jordan for Finn, 36; David Gibbons for Smith, 39; Cian Muldoon for Fitzgerald, 52; TJ Dillon for Durnin, 55.
James Nealon, Adrian Smith, Dara Mooney, Philip Cullen, Damien Holden, John Doran, Lorcan Shinnors, Dara de Burca, John Roche (0-5, 4f), Brian Nicholson (0-1), Kevin Gleeson, Tomas Seale (1-0), Eoin McManus (1-1), Ian Murphy (1-2), Cathal Manley (0-2).
Conor Higgins for Cullen, 24; Stephen Ryan for De Burca, 28; Diarmuid Shinnors for Smith, 40l; Sean Killeen for Murphy, 53.
Alan Lagru.
e
