Clonmore continued their good form in Woodside on Friday evening with a convincing win over a strangely subdued Tinryland who had recorded an impressive win over the Fighting Cocks in the First Round.
The early exchanges were closely fought and Clonmore managed only point from Con Murphy in the first quarter to lead 0-1 to 0-0 after 15 minutes. But that all changed utterly in a five minute scoring burst from Clonmore between the 15th and 20th minutes. First Owen Coleman crashed a great left footed shot to the top right-hand corner of Chris Townsend’s net and within seconds Shane McGrath took a pass from Enda McGrath to rattle the next again. There followed a string of excellent long-range points from Shane McGrath (2), Shane Murphy and Con Murphy to put Clonmore ahead by 2-5 to 0-0 on 21 minutes. Clonmore could even afford the luxury of missing a penalty on 24 minutes when Shane McGrath’s well-struck shot was brilliantly saved by the diving Townsend.
The second half followed a similar pattern with Tinryland struggling to make any headway against the swarm defence and tough tackling of the fit and fast Clonmore men. A third goal from Tom Pollard in the 38 minute ended the game as a contest but not before Luke Connolly, Rob Bulmer, James Whelan and Jake Hickey kicked some more impressive points for the home team.
Tinryland have qualified for the Quarter Finals by virtue of their win over the Fighting Cocks. They were missing a number of players in this game and should be stronger when the Q/Fs come around on the weekend of 17 September.
With two wins under their belt, Clonmore have qualified for the Semi-finals on the weekend of 24 September, irrespective of the result of the Final Round game against the Fighting Cocks on the weekend of 10 September.
Clonmore: Collie McGrath, Cormac Connolly, Anthony McDonald, Paddy Gahan, Shane Murphy (0-1), Matt Cullen, Billy Lawlor, Enda McGrath (0-1), Luke Connolly (0-2), Robert Bulmer (0-1), Shane McGrath (1-3, 2f), James Whelan (0-1), Tom Pollard (1-1), Con Murphy (0-2), Owen Coleman (1-1). Subs: Jake Hickey (0-1) for Cormac Connolly (inj, 23m), Dylan Doyle for Owen Coleman (42m), Eoin Connolly for Tom Pollard (45m).
