Double delight as Cloughbawn pip neighbours after extra-time
CLOUGHBAWN 3-10 DAVIDSTOWN-C’CUDDY 3-6 (AET) CLOUGHBAWN COMPLETED a New Ross Standard Under-14 Division 5A shield 13-a-side double in St. Patrick’s Park recently, adding the hurling crown to the football one they claimed two weeks earlier.
The Castleboro boys were made to fight all the way for the glory by a gutsy, relentless Davidstown-Courtnacuddy who themselves were extremely unlucky not to complete their own double, having taken the New Ross Standard Under-14 football Division 4 shield recently.
Indeed, the skill levels of the sides were so similar that it took extra-time to separate them. It was one of those strange games, where both sides had their periods of total dominance but in the end they meshed to produce a cracking draw in the 50 minutes.
It started with Cloughbawn showing their quality, with their inspirational joint-captain Paddy Whitty picking off the opening couple of points to give them a 0-2 to nil lead. Despite a fantastic four minutes, the eventual victors played second fiddle for the rest of the half.
Davidstown-Courtnacuddy opened their account in the eighth minute when Barry Hassey’s long ball into the goalmouth was whipped to the net by Darragh Furlong. A similar long ball got Conal Kervick in on the left of the posts and he calmly fired past Ryan Murphy to make it 2-0 to 0-2.
There was plenty of action in and around midfield as the half wore on, with few goalmouth scares at either end. That was until Fionn Doyle found Darragh Furlong with a long ball in the 22nd minute and the scorer of the opening goal pulled home his second.
On the stroke of the interval Barry Hassey added a placed ball to give his club a 3-1 to 0-2 advantage. Mikey Fleming popped over a fine point to start the second period but when Kervick responded two minutes later and there was still eight between the teams.
David Tracey made a nice save from a Whitty shot on goal in the 31st minute, but the Cloughbawn talisman added a free two minutes later to make it 3-2 to 0-4.
A strange moment, which happened with ten minutes left, eventually proved costly to the Boolabawn boys.
While Hassey was in the process of tapping over a 35-metre free, referee Patrick Kehoe blew his whistle to seemingly order a Cloughbawn defender to move back. The initial dead-ball split the posts but Hassey was made take it again and he missed the second time.
Cloughbawn took heart and scored 2-2 in the next four minutes. A superb one-two between Shane Kehoe and Whitty ended with the former drilling past Tracey in the Davidstown-Courtnacuddy goal. Roles were reversed moments later with Whitty hitting the net to move his side within one (3-2 to 2-4).
A Whitty free and a fine Darragh Redmond point gave Cloughbawn the lead with five minutes remaining, only for Davidstown-Courtnacuddy to level four minutes into added-time when Eddie Kelly nabbed possession and drilled over a picture perfect point from 40 metres out to leave the sides deadlocked at 3-3 to 2-6 at full-time.
Impressive substitute Seán Fitzpatrick scored a lovely opener in extra-time but, after Whitty levelled with a free, the Cloughbawn maestro took the resulting puck-out 40 metres and sent an unstoppable low shot to the Davidstown-Courtnacuddy goal.
Despite Hassey points either side of the interval, which got his team within one (3-7 to 3-6), Cloughbawn finished with a flourish, scoring three on the bounce from Whitty (two) and Shane Kehoe to take the honours back to Castleboro.
Cloughbawn: Ryan Murphy; Cathal Doyle, Darragh Kehoe; Ben Keeley, Neil Foley, Gary Kennedy; Paddy Whitty (joint capt., 2-7, 0-5 frees), Shane Kehoe (1-1); Aaron McManus, Ciarán Murphy (joint capt.), Darragh Redmond (0-1); Nathan McDonald, Mikey Fleming (0-1). Subs. - Paul Byrne for McManus (42), Daniel Murphy for McDonald (50), also Cormac Cooper, Oran Clare, Eoin Murphy, Eamonn Murphy, John Connors.
Davidstown-Courtnacuddy: David Tracey; James Doyle, Aaron Nicholson; Oisín Cooney, Eddie Kelly (capt., 0-1), Fionn Doyle; Barry Hassey (0-3, 2 frees), Conal Kervick (1-1); Seán Maher, Cian Jordan, Cillian Doyle; Darragh Furlong (2-0), Oisín Hayes. Subs. - Seán Fitzpatrick (0-1) for Hayes (37), Daniel Murphy for Furlong (48), Evan Power for C. Doyle (48), Furlong for Power (61), also Dylan Sharkey, Tom Quigley, T.J. Kelly, Jack O’Regan, Joe Doyle, Seán Nicholson, Conor Hassey.
Referee: Patrick Kehoe (HWH-Bunclody).