Defending champions St.Eunan’s recorded another comfortable win to confirm their place in the Quarter-Finals of this year’s championship.
St Eunan’s 1-20 Cloughaneely 2-7
After wins over St.Nauls and Bundoran the visitors, Cloughaneely found themselves under pressure right from the start, as the home side without Niall O Donnell, Conor O Donnell Snr, Darragh Mulgrew and Aaron Deeney but Kieran Tobin restored after his return from the USA to their starting line-up, set a blistering pace.
The home team hit four points from play in the opening eight minutes, three crackers from Conor O Donnell Jnr from play and a Eoin McGeehin free.
Cloughaneely replied with points from Shaun Curran and Paul Sweeney but Eunans hit back with another four points in a row. Eoin McGeehin, Brian McIntyre, Padraig McGettigan and Kieran Tobin all scored from play to leave it 0-08 to 0-02 after 16 minutes.
It was another six minutes before we had the next score and it was a big blow for the visitors as Ciaran Moore finished off a good St.Eunans move by blasting the ball into the roof of the Cloughaneely net and the lead was out to nine points and a mountain for the visitors to climb.
Eoin McGeehin and Shaun Curran exchanged points and then on the stroke of half-time Clash got a badly needed boost when Blake McGarvey fisted Ciaran McGeady’s dropping ball past Shaun Patton to leave the half-time score 1-09 to 1-03 in St.Eunans favour.
Eunans started the second-half as they had the first, scoring three quick-fire points, all from Eoin McGeehin, two from frees. Jason McGee replied with a long range free but points from Sean McVeigh and Shane O Donnell stretched the lead out to ten points, 1-14 to 1-04, ten minutes into the second half.
St.Eunans continued to knock over the points, Eoin McGeehin added two frees to bring his total to 0-08, sub Conor O Donnell Snr kicked one from play, Conor 0 Donnell Jnr brought his total for an excellent day’s work to five, and another sub Oran Winstone also pointed.
Cloughaneely, to their credit, kept trying and were rewarded with a second goal, a cool finish from Paul Sweeney, a third Shaun Curran point, and scores from Mark Harley and Jason McGee as St.Eunans won by 1-20 to 2-07.
One round of games still to go but St.Eunans are assured of a top eight finish while Cloughaneely now look certain to finish in the bottom eight to face the challenge of retaining Senior status.
St Eunan’s: Shaun Patton; Conor Parke, Caolan Ward, Peter McEniff; Sean McVeigh (0-01), Kieran Tobin ( 0-01), Peter Devine; Sean McGettigan, Ciaran Moore ( 1-00), Kevin Kealy, Shane O’Donnell (0-01), Brian McIntyre ( 0-01), Conor O Donnell Jnr ( 0-05), Padraig McGettigan ( 0-01), Eoin McGeehin ( 0-08/5f’s).
Subs: ; Jordan O Dowd and Oran Winstone (0-01), for Padraig McGettigan and Intyre (45mins), Conor O Donnell Snr (0-01) for Tobin (50mins), Aaron Deeney for McEniff (55mins ).
Cloughaneely: Shaun McClafferty, Ciaran McFadden Lee O’Brien, Fionn McGinley; Cian McFadden, Michael Fitzgerald, Shaun Curran (0-03), Darren McGeever; Martin Maguire, Conor Coyle, Blake McGarvey (1-00), Ciaran McGeady, Paul Sweeney(1-01), Jason McGee (0-2f’s), Mark Harley (0-1).
Subs ; Cillian Gallagher for Coyle (45mins), Cathal McGeever for Maguire (50mins). Shaun Maguire and Ciaran Scanlon for McGarvey and Paul Sweeney (55mins).
Referee; Marc Browne.
