Éire Óg 2-22

Clyda Rovers 1-3

NOEL HORGAN REPORTS

IT took a while, but once Éire Óg clicked into top gear they made light work of accounting for Clyda Rovers in the county senior A football championship tie at Grenagh on Sunday.

It’s a result that sees Éire Óg guarantee qualification to the knockout stages with a game to spare.

Leading by 1-9 to 0-2 at the interval, the Muskerry outfit stretched the gap with a brace of spectacular scores shared by Darragh Clifford and Colm O’Callaghan on the resumption to set the pattern for a second half they comprehensively controlled.

Their 22-point winning margin tells its own story, leaving manager Eoin Fehilly with every reason to feel satisfied with a performance bordering on perfection.

‘We had two weeks to prepare for this one game, which was a big help to us as a dual club,’ said Fehilly, who commiserated with Clyda Rovers on the bereavement that led to the postponement of the original fixture.

‘We need to be building from game to game, we want to win everything put in front of us, and all our focus now is on the next one against Kilshannig.

‘If we win it, we could get into a semi-final and get a longer rest. If we’re beaten, we’re in a quarter-final and could progress with the benefit of another competitive match,’ he noted.

‘It’s hard to be sure where the advantage lies, but we don’t focus on permutations, so we’ll prepare as normal and hopefully perform as well as we can against Kilshannig.’

There was little to suggest Éire Óg were destined for such a decisive victory during the opening quarter.

Clyda applied the bulk of the early pressure, mounting several cohesive attacks, one of which saw midfielder Ben Nyhan, with the score at 0-1 apiece, bring the best out of Éire Óg goalkeeper Chris Kelly in the 12th minute.

The Mourneabbey men lacked a cutting edge up front for the most part, indicative of how much they felt the unavailability of their talismanic attacker Conor Corbettt.

Given developments as the contest progressed, however, it would be stretching things quite a bit to contend that Corbett's absence through injury had a crucial bearing on the outcome.

Nor could the questionable legitimacy of the game’s opening goal, scored by Éire Óg’s Jerome Kelleher, be put forward as a mitigating reason for Clyda’s demolition.

It came in the 21st minute when Kelleher got the vital touch in a goalmouth scramble which resulted after what seemed a small-square infringement by an Éire Óg forward had been ignored.

Now leading by 1-4 to 0-1, the Ovens men steadily tightened the screw before the interval.

It was largely a case of one-way traffic in the second-half, although Clyda’s Cian O’Sullivan did grab a goal to make it 1-12 to 1-2 with 39 minutes gone.

Éire Óg’s second goal came from wing-back Brian Thompson, who, along with Conor McGoldrick, Mark Griffin, Colm O’Callaghan, Darragh Clifford and Daniel Goulding with his flawless free-taking, excelled.

OUR STAR: Hard-running Éire Óg midfielder Mark Griffin was most influential when the contest was reasonably competitive in the first half.

Scorers

Éire Óg: D Goulding 0-8 (2 2ptf, 4f); J Kelleher 1-1; B Thompson 1-0; C O’Callaghan 0-3; C McGoldrick 0-3 (2pt); J Murphy, D Clifford, C Clifford 0-2 each; R O’Toole 0-1.

Clyda Rovers: C O’Sullivan 1-1; B Nyhan, K Graham 0-1 each.

Éire Óg: C Kelly; C Murphy, M Corkery, J Mullins; D McCarthy, C McGoldrick, B Thompson; M Griffin, C O’Callaghan; D Clifford, O O’Shea, J Kelleher; D Goulding, J Galvin, J Murphy.

Subs: R O’Toole for O’Shea (ht), S Hurley for Galvin (41), C Clifford for McCarthy (41), M Brady for Mullins (42), D Kelly for Griffin (inj, 45), Griffin for Kelleher (51).

Clyda Rovers: K Coffey; C Cooney, A Walsh, N Burke; C Kelly, G Deane, A Kelly; B Nyhan, D Walsh; K Graham, C O’Sullivan, P Kissane; D Cooney, C Walsh, P O’Grady.

Subs: C Corbett for Nyhan (inj, 34), C Kenny for Deane (46), S O’Sullivan for C Walsh (48), C Flanagan for O’Grady (inj, 52).

Referee: A O’Connor (Ballygarvan).