Claregalway 4-12 Caherlistrane 0-10 – Match Report

A 2nd half blitzkrieg proved too much for Caherlistrane to handle yesterday evening in Tuam Stadium as Claregalway eradicated the disappointment of an opening day defeat at the hands of Killannin. With some injury concerns, Alan Moran and his attaché’s were forced to shuffle the deck with Kilgannon, Loftus, Jason O’Reilly and Conor Kelly in from the start in a game where anything but a win would have meant elimination from the championship. Our opponents sprung the surprise of the opening round defeating Tuam by 2 points and a win over Claregalway would have all but qualified them for the knockout stages.

The opening half was tit for tat with Claregalway somewhat slow out of the blocks but a Jack Glynn goal just before the break had us in front at half time on a 1-04 to 0-05 scoreline with our points coming from Barry Goldrick (2), JOR and a booming effort from centre forward Sean Moran while Alan Morris, Cein D’Arcy, Ronan Conneely and Oisin O’Brien registered white flags for Caherlistrane. Larry Bane would have told his charges that they needed a quick start to the 2nd period, they didn’t get it and we certainly did. With the half barely restarted, we capitalised on an error from the Caherlistrane defence, Barry Goldrick chipped the ball into his hands without breaking stride and unleashed a bullet to the roof of the net with his right foot past Eanna Bane to extend the lead to 5 points and to put Claregalway fully in charge. Mark Rohan (2) and a fantastic effort from Padraic Commins had us in the ascendency at 2-07 to 0-08 at the water break and for the final 15 minutes, we outscored our opponents 2-05 to 0-02 with PC, JOR, Barry Goldrick and Rohan all kicking points and the impressive Nathan Grainger scoring 2 goals on his debut.

On an evening where Claregalway truly did find themselves in an all duck or no dinner situation, the forwards particularly in the 2nd half, ate all around them and this healthy scoring difference means we currently sit top of the table. With a number of players set to return from injury, there will be some difficult conversations had when it comes to selecting a team for the final group game v Tuam in 2 weeks time. On this occasion, Claregalway were well served by Conor Flaherty in goal, Whelan and Jack Glynn at the back, Hennessy did well at midfield while up front, Sean and Rohan impressed and Barry Goldrick oozed class especially in the 2nd half. For Caherlistrane, all is certainly not lost for them either and if they do in fact defeat Killannin they will advance.

MOTM: JOR. Held in reserve last time out and an instant impact made when introduced, this form was carried over to Tuam Stadium yesterday evening. Took scores, created chances, forced turnovers etc in an all round display. D Whelan a close 2nd.

Team – Flaherty, Whelan, Cunniffe, Kilgannon, Glynn, Loftus, Campbell, Hennessy, Connolly, Molloy, Moran, JOR, Goldrick, Kelly, Rohan.

Subs used – P Commins, Costello, B Callinan, N Grainger, P Kearney.