Doran delivers on derby day
Sam Doran was in devastating form for Johnstownbridge in their derby win over Clogherinkoe
Free-scoring Johnstownbridge took the bragging rights and secured their place in the knockout stages of the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship with a comprehensive 26-point dismantling of neighbours Clogherinkoe at Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Sunday afternoon.
First half goals from Luke Ennis and Sam Doran sent them on the way but it was the long-range shooting of Darragh Sloane that rammed home their advantage, the wing-forward registering no fewer than five two-point scores from play as part of a 0-11 overall return in an outstanding display. Clogherinkoe couldn’t handle Doran either, the classy centre-forward finishing with 2-5 to his name.
Johnstownbridge got off to the perfect start with two goals inside the opening nine minutes. Almost from the throw in Luke Ennis picked up the scraps from Josh O’Donoghue’s cross into the goalmouth to beat Keith Wilkinson from close range and Sam Doran followed that up with a neat finish having ran through unchallenged from the left.
In between those two strikes, though, Clogherinkoe kept in touch with a two-pointer from Mark Nolan and a free from Jimmy Lynch.
With Darragh Sloane registering a two-pointer and a single and O’Donoghue weighing in with two singles, Johnstownbridge moved into the ascendancy and seemed to be heading for a comfortable win when 2-7 to 0-5 ahead after 23 minutes.
Back came Clogherinkoe, though, and Lynch gave them encouragement with a delightfully struck two-pointer from all of 48 metres. They then narrowed the gap to three points when Caelum Flanagan’s dinked pass over the top found Aedan Boyle behind the defence, and he slotted to the net at Eoin Sheehan’s near post with five minutes to go in the half (2-7 to 1-7).
Sheehan stretched the lead to five with a thundering two-point free from outside the ’45 but Clogherinkoe looked set to narrow that gap to two when Boyle turned over Aaron McNally and found Nolan who set up Cein McMonagle for a goal chance. McMonagle ran into a high challenge from Sheehan and referee Henry Barrett pointed to the spot.
Sheehan made himself the hero, though, diving to his right to push out Nolan’s spot kick.
Remarkably, the winners scored three two-pointers within the opening eighty seconds of the second half, Doran and Sloane (two) on the mark and when Cribbin broke through for their third goal three minutes after the break it was game over for Cloghs, who now trailed 3-15 to 1-8.
Johnstownbridge enjoyed target practice for the remainder of the half, outscoring their neighbours by 1-12 to 0-2 with the highlights coming in the final five minutes with two more Sloan specials from outside the arc and another neat finish from Doran for the fourth goal.
The result leaves Johnstownbridge and Celbridge level on three points at the top of Group A with Athy a point further back. All three are guaranteed a place in the Preliminary Quarter Finals at least, thanks to Athy’s head-to-head advantage over Clogherinkoe.
Eoin Sheehan 0-2 (tpf); Kieran Ryan, Tomas Von Engelbrechten, Sean McKeon; Shane Flynn, Keith Cribbin, Aaron McNally; Joey Higgins, Paul Cribbin 1-2 (0-2fs); Daragh Sloane 0-11 (5tps), Sam Doran 2-5 (0-2tp), Cathal McNally; Josh O'Donoghue 0-3 (1f), Dean Kelly 0-1, Luke Ennis 1-0. Subs: Ronan Scanlon 0-2 for Higgins 18, Ryan Rainey for K Ryan 33, Luke O’Connor 0-1 for Ennis 46, Ian McKeon for C McNally 47, Adam Quinn for Kelly 54.
Keith Wilkinson; Conor Grehan, Eoghan McMonagle, Ben Kenny; David Hill, Joe Mulraney, Andrew Hill; Daniel Grehan, Killian Galligan 0-1; Aedan Boyle 1-1, Mark Nolan 0-2 (tp), Caelum Flanagan; Jimmy Lynch 0-4 (1tp, 2fs), Cein McMonagle 0-1 (f), Rory Phelan. Subs: Rian Cully for Phelan 43, Conor O’Donoghue for Mulraney 51, Joe McElduff for D Hill 54, Jamie Boyle 0-1 for Nolan 57.
Henry Barrett.
