Clonmore GFC

Story of the game: 

15mins: Clonmore 0-3 Ballon 0-1, Ballon launched a number of early attacks but met with determined defending from the Clonmore backs. We than settled into the game and got on top for a while. Francie Whelan was very accurate with his kick-outs and Willie Byrne and Anthony Byrne were either winning the kick-outs or breaking it away from Ballon's big fielders. Points from Tom Pollard, Niall and Gavin (free) are scant reward for Clonmore's dominance as we miss several good scoring chances,

30mins: Clonmore 0-3 Ballon 0-4, Ballon have a purple patch and we  were lucky not to concede a goal or two, Francie made one excellent point blank save and the backs had to crowd out the Ballon forwards in dangerous positions near goal on a few occasions.

45mins: Clonmore 1-6 Ballon 0-5, we started the second half in determined mood and points by Gavin (2 difficult frees) and a rare left footer from long range by Niall Humphries put us 0-6 to 0-5 up. Then Gavin scored a great goal, outfielding two defenders to gather a long pass from Con Murphy before slotting it low to the net,

55mins: Clonmore 1-7 Ballon 0-7, Willie Byrne crowns an outstanding performance with a long range point to keep us four points ahead but a late Frank Fanning free leaves just a goal between the teams. Ref John Hickey plays three minutes of nail biting injury time and Clonmore had to do some desperate defending to keep out the frantic efforts of the Ballon men.  Remarkably, Ballon failed to score from play in the entire game with all their scores coming from placed balls - 3 frees by Frank Fanning, 2 frees and 2 '45's by Liam Brennan.

The final whistle signalled great relief and joy in the Clonmore camp and we can look forward to another IFC campaign in 2019 when, hopefully, we can at least make the play-offs and avoid another relegation final.

Well done to all the players and mentors, Paul Byrne, Pauric lawlor and Robert Doyle. 

Team: Francie Whelan, Sean Tompkins, John Kelly, Matt Cullen, Sean Deay, Shane Murphy, Rory McKernan, Anthony Byrne, Willie Byrne (0-1), Paddy Gahan, Con Murphy, Tom Pollard (0-1), Enda McGrath, Gavin Byrne (1-3,3f), Niall Humphries (0-2). Subs:  David McCarney for Sean T (inj 44mins), John McGrath for Niall (50mins). Also: Jason Byrne, Andrew Byrne and Josh Bowes.

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Back (left to right): Daniel Quigley, Willie Byrne, Con Murphy, Owen Coleman, Paddy Gahan, Jamie Walsh, Andrew Byrne, Gavin Byrne, Francie Whelan, Sean Deay, Niall Humphries, Larry Doyle, Alan Humphries.

Front: Shane McGrath, Willie Rooney, Matt Cullen, Anthony Byrne, Jason Fitzharris, John Kelly, Shane Murphy, Tom Pollard, Jason Byrne, Enda McGrath (Captain), Rory McKernan, Jordan Kane.