TRUAGH DOWN SPIRITED CLONTIBRET IN TRUAGH DOWN SPIRITED CLONTIBRET IN U17 DECIDER
Mallon Foods U17 Football League Division 3 Cup Final
Truagh 1-13 Clontibret 3-5
A cuter, sharper and more composed performance saw Truagh take U17 Division 3 honours against Clontibret in Emyvale last Sunday morning.
The St Mellan’s men had great individual displays all over the park, including Louis Kelly, who top scored with 4 points and was a late change for Jack McKenna.
Truagh made the first impression on the scoreboard with a Christopher Flood point in the opening minute. They then added two more through the aforementioned Kelly and a Gareth Keenan free.
Clontibret eventually got their first point on 11 minutes thanks to a Conor McCooey free, but then Truagh scored the next three points, through Ronan Boyle and both Louis Kelly and Gareth Keenan, who both brought their personal tallies to 2.
Truagh were now 0-6 to 0-1 ahead after a quarter of an hour, but their lead could have been reduced greatly had Conor McCooey capitalised on a glorious goal chance for Clontibret after 18 minutes. They soon got their first point from play however two minutes later, through Conor Moran.
Louis Kelly pushed Truagh out to 7-2 by the 21st minute, and shortly afterwards Gareth Keenan spurned a goal chance for Truagh which at that stage could have been crucial.
Then on 29 minutes, Clontibret were handed a lifeline. Conor Molloy soloed across the square before hitting a looping shot over the head of Truagh keeper Oran McCarron into the net, to leave Clontibret only two points in arrears at half time, 0-7 to 1-2.
The O’Neills men picked up where they left off on the resumption, with Conor McCooey splitting the posts to leave the margin at the bare minimum.
Gareth Keenan doubled Truagh’s lead again however, and were 0-8 to 1-3 ahead after 32 minutes.
On the next attack though, Clontibret hit the front for the first time. Conor Molloy raced up the field and baring down on goal, he hit a deflected shot into the bottom of the net for his second goal, to leave his team 2-3 to 0-8 ahead after 34 minutes.
Truagh were completely unfazed by this setback, and just a minute later, Ryan Boyle charged down the middle of the field and returned the compliment with his side’s only goal of the game.
Clontibret stuck with their opponents though, and when Conor McCooey struck a magnificent 45 to leave the gap at one point, the contest looked to be gathering momentum.
Truagh insured that this didn’t happen though. Between the 39th and 53rd minutes, they kicked the next four points to take firm command of the match. Keenan, Kelly, Ronan Boyle and Christopher Flood were all on target.
With full time approaching, Clontibret had to work the oracle again, and they did. After a goalmouth scramble, Conor Molloy slammed in his third goal to leave the score 1-13 to 3-4 to Truagh on the stroke of injury time.
Two minutes into stoppage time, and Emmet Walsh cut the gap to 2 points with a close range white flag when perhaps another goal was on.
In the end, Truagh managed to hold out, and claimed a deserved win on the balance of play.
TRUAGH: Oran McCarron, Karl McMeel, Christopher Flood 0-3, Oran Maguire, Gareth Keenan 0-4 (2f), Aaron Treanor, Ryan Boyle 1-0, Ronan Boyle 0-2, Lewis McElwaine, Cian Maguire, Louis Kelly 0-4, David McKenna, Caomhain Woods.
Subs: Jack McKenna for Gareth Keenan, Ryan Woods for Lewis McElwaine.
CLONTIBRET: David Brennan, Jack Dunlop, James Carey, Conor Moran 0-1, Darren McMahon, Jack Flynn, Nathan Power, Patrick Keenan, Emmet Walsh 0-1, Conor McCooey 0-3 (1f, 1 ‘45’), Caolan Keenan, Conor Molloy 3-0, Aaron Carey.
Subs: Ciaran Doyle for Caolan Keenan, Mark Fitzpatrick for Patrick Keenan.
