This article is from page 72 of the 2009-07-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 72 JPG
A TALE of contrasting confidence on Saturday evening as Crusheen easily held off the challenge of Inagh/Kil- namona to push themselves into the race for one of the two knock-out places. Down the other end, Inagh/ Kilnamona are struggling to keep their heads above water with only two wins from seven games but re- ally they didn’t do themselves any favours here by leaking two avoid- able goals while their first touch and self-belief seems to have all but dis-
appeared. And it was those two goals that separated the sides throughout,
with the first coming after only 14 minutes with the sides locked at O- 2 to 0-2. Paddy Meaney gathered the ball about 40 metres from goal and was allowed to weave his way through the defence before pulling the ball back across the square for Joe Meaney to finish to the net after a goalmouth scramble. The second followed only four minutes later and it was infinitely more sloppy, with the Inagh/Kilnamona defence failing to clear their lines on the left wing before Sean Dillon swooped in to in- tercept an Eamonn Glynn handpass and just as it seemed as if his shot was destined for a point, goalkeeper
Patrick Kelly climbed to retrieve the ball from over the crossbar, only to see it trickle over the goal-line. Those two goals were to haunt In- agh/Kilnamona for the remainder of the contest as they would never get to within less than four of their op- ponents. Instead, Crusheen, led by another star turn from county Under 21 player Cian Dillon, and Alan Tuo- hy’s frees, played within themselves to hold that clear advantage, leading
by 2-6 to 0-6 at the break.
Inagh/Kilnamona did have impres- sive displays of their own in Cathal Lafferty and David Hegarty but without support, the second half descended into a scrappy affair that was dominated by frees. Crusheen could even afford to hit eleven wides over the hour and still maintain their healthy advantage.
By the 50th minute, Crusheen had edged seven points clear at 2-11 to 0-
10 after a brace from Cian Dillon and a point apiece from Conor O’ Donnell and the returning Cronan Dillon, but even though Dermot Gannon restored some respectability to the scoreline with three successive frees before the final whistle, they were only mere consolations as mentally, Inagh/Kilnamona were already half- way to the dressing rooms.