Morgan Fuels Down Senior Football Championship Round Two: Kilcoo 2-9 Clonduff 1-8
From Brendan Crossan at Pairc Esler
AFTER last season’s ugly semi-final encounter between Kilcoo and Clonduff, Down officialdom breathed a major sigh of relief as this round two championship clash at Pairc Esler passed off without incident and a deserved win for the Magpies.
There weren’t many handshakes between the two sets of players at the final whistle, as the defending champions advanced to the quarter-finals and Clonduff made their way to the back door where they’ll face Glenn.
In truth, Kilcoo never looked like losing this tie - but a seriously weakened Clonduff still left the field with plenty of credit.
A first-half Stephen McConville goal spooked Kilcoo for a brief period before Miceal Rooney replied with a goal for the Magpies five minutes later.
Karl Lacey’s men landed the killer blow in the 47th minute when Jerome Johnston fired to the Clonduff net to put them 2-8 to 1-4 ahead.
It left Clonduff with a mountain to climb.
The defending champions found an early rhythm to their play moving the ball swiftly in a bid to pull the Clonduff defence out of position.
And in those early stages, it was working with the Magpies hitting four points on the bounce in the first 13 minutes.
Ryan Johnston opened Kilcoo’s account on three minutes with Jerome Johnston adding another six minutes later.
MacDarragh Hynes, a late change for Eugene Branagan, fisted over from close range before Anthony Morgan converted a rangy ‘mark’.
Clonduff, who welcomed back Ross Carr from suspension, had just two notable attacks in the opening 10 minutes – both of which came to nothing.
Kilcoo had goalkeeper Niall Kane to thank for keeping their fierce rivals scoreless after Clonduff’s impressive Dan Rafferty made a penetrating run on the counter-attack before off-loading to Ben McConville.
But his dinked finish was brilliantly stopped by a one-handed save from Kane.
Pat O’Hagan failed to get the ‘Yellas’ off the mark too when he scuffed his effort wide.
Clonduff didn’t commit too many to the attack – but in the 14th minute they were still able to breach the Kilcoo back-line.
The all-action Pat O’Hagan cleverly flicked a high ball on to the raiding Stephen McConville who kept his composure to fire low past Kane and into the net.
Clonduff’s major definitely roused their supporters and they drew level through a 19th minute Stephen McConville free.
Kilcoo’s early economy deserted them midway through the first half – but you always sensed they’d still pick off enough scores to forge ahead again.
And they did through Miceal Rooney’s flicked finish to the Clonduff net that put the champions 1-4 to 1-1 ahead.
In between times, referee Colin Gribben had to remedy two wrong decisions from his umpires at either end of the field – ruling out Hynes’s effort for Kilcoo that was initially given and awarding Pat O’Hagan’s attempted free as successful despite the umpire waving it wide.
Unlike last season’s controversial semi-final encounter, this wasn’t a do-or-die collision between two rival parishes – but there was enough bite in a few challenges that prompted a minor skirmish between a couple of players that quickly fizzled out after one or two stiff-armed shoves in the middle of the field.
The Kilcoo defence were struggling to put the shackles on Dan Rafferty out on the right flank who made it a one-point game in the early throes of the second half [1-4 to 1-3].
But Eugene Branagan, thrust into the action for the restart, showed his class by scoring with his first touch to put two points of daylight between the sides and a minute later found Miceal Rooney with a sumptuous kick pass for Kilcoo to forge further ahead.
Despite missing so many key players through injury and suspension, Clonduff are one gutsy outfit. Trailing by three points, they had to commit more men forward which left them exposed at the back.
In the 47th minute, Jerome Johnston didn’t have to be asked twice either when he sprinted into space and struck a sweet left foot shot into the bottom corner of Clonduff’s net.
Kilcoo’s second green flag of the night, putting them 2-8 to 1-4 ahead, virtually killed Clonduff’s hopes of causing a championship upset.
Kilcoo: N Kane; N Branagan, T Fettes, C Rodgers; M Rooney (1-1), D Branagan, M Dynes (0-1); Aaron Morgan, R McEvoy (0-1 free); C Rooney, Anthony Morgan (0-2, 0-1 mark), J Devlin; J Johnston (1-1, 0-1 free), R Johnston (0-1), C Doherty Subs: E Branagan (0-1) for C Rooney (h/t), P Devlin (0-1) for J Devlin (47)
Clonduff: M Devlin; P O’Hagan (0-1 free), J Brown, B Britton; J Gribben, B McConville, D Rafferty (0-2, 0-1 ‘45); P McEvoy (0-1), R Carr (0-1 ‘45); C Murray, S McConville (1-2, 0-2 frees), C Carr, T McAvoy, A McConville (0-1 free), P Cowan Subs: P McEvoy for P Cowan (43), S Carr for L Brown (43), P Lively for J Gribben (48), S Close for T McAvoy (52)
Referee: C Gribben