ULSTER CLUB JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Drumhowan 0-11, Carndonagh (Donegal) 0-6.
Monaghan Junior champions Drumhowan made a strong statement of intent with this decisive victory in their opening game of the Ulster club championship when they comprehensively defeated Donegal champions Carndonagh in Clones on Sunday last. Drumhowan were the more effective team overall as it was only in the first quarter that Carndonagh looked as if they would carry the game to Drumhowan. They opened with a flurry of activity as is their usual way to establish an early foothold and it took Drumhowan some time to come to grips with that. But by the end of the first quarter though they had things under control as Dermot McDermott and Enda McElroy took command of the situation in the middle of the field and the Drumhowan attack began to tick and stringing some good moves together. Despite that though the game was still very much in the balance at the end of the first half but that was mainly because of some poor finishing by the Monaghan champions. However, that all changed in the second half and the game was increasingly dominated by Drumhowan. They took an early stranglehold on proceedings from the start of the second half and with their running game on full throttle Carndonagh really had no answers. The Drumhowan defence worked hard to frustrate the Carndonagh attack with strong performances from Darren Mooney, Niall Mooney and Kevin Mooney the Donegal men could not manage even one breakthrough. An outstanding display by Dermott McDermott in midfield was the spur for the strong Drumhowan second half display while up front Colm Lambe, Gerard Duffy, Stephen McGinnity and James McElroy were all impressive. McElroy hit top form in the second half and was often the man around whom things revolved in the Drumhowan attack. But in spite of their impressive victory Drumhowan will have some concerns about some of their finishing and no doubt they will be working on that before their next Ulster championship outing against Belfast side McDermotts on November 16th.
Carndonagh started brightly and opened the scoring with two points, one from a free, from their most impressive forward Darren Burke. Drumhowan pulled back a point through Dermot McDermott in the 4th minute and should have gone on to consolidate even at this early stage but poor finishing saw them off target five times before Colm Lambe hit the equalizer from a free. Scores were hard to come by and by the 20 minute mark the sides had exchanged points through Darren Burke, free for Carndonagh and James McElroy for Drumhowan. Matters were pretty even at this stage but when Carndonagh went two in front with points from Damien Doherty and Darren Burke from a ’45, Drumhowan were thrown a little off balance. A magnificent point from Gerard Duffy helped get them back on track leaving just a point between them at the break ona half time score of Carndonagh 0-5 Drumhowan 0-4.
Drumhowan opened the second half at a blistering pace and quickly set out their recovery stall as Dermott McDermott raced through the Carndonagh defence but was just inches wide with his goal attempt. That set the tone and for the remainder of the third quarter they simply swamped their opponents as Dermot McDermott and the McElroy brothers, Enda and James, delivered with power and intensity. The impact was that by the end of that period Drumhowan had gone from being a point behind at the break to a two points lead as they registered three points without reply from Colm Lambe, two and James McElroy with Dermot McDermott coming close to rattling the Carndonagh net once again. With ten minutes of normal time remaining Carndonagh eventually got on target when Patrick Nelson sent over but that was to be their only score of the second half. Drumhowan were now in almost total control but were still guilty of some wayward shooting although despite that they were dictating play and the found the target on four occasions during the last eight minutes of normal time. Colm Lambe’s free taking accounted for two of these points while James McElroy and Rodney Mooney took the other two to wrap up a comfortable enough victory in the end although there will be a few areas of their game that they will seek to improve on for the semi final.
Teams and Scorers: Drumhowan: Enda Duffy, Darren Duffy, Liam McGuirk, Martin McElroy, Damien Duffy, Niall Mooney, Kevin Mooney, Enda McElroy, Dermot McDermott 0-1, James McElroy 0-3, (1f), Stephen McGinnity, Gerard Duffy 0-1, Kieran Mooney, Kieran Deery, Colm Lambe 0-5, (3f). Sub: Rodney Mooney 0-1 for K Deery.
Carndonagh; Martin Mooney, Michael Nelson, Michael McLaughlin, Ryan Davenport, Patrick Nelson 0-1, Cathal Doherty, Mark Canny, Gerard Doherty, Ciaran Browne, Darren Burke 0-4, (3f), Darragh McLaughlin, Kevin McElhinney, Cathal O’Kane, Dominic Doherty 0-1, Garvan McGrenra. Subs: Robert McCartney for K McElhinney,
Barry McElhinney for D McLaughlin, Christy McLaughlin for D Doherty.
Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan).
REACTION.
Drumhowan manager Donal McAdam was delighted that his side had got through to the semi-final but was nevertheless keeping his and everyone’s feet on ground. He acknowledged that it was a tough game and it was a close contest all through although he did express himself a little disappointed with some aspects of Drumhowan’s play. “In the first half it was a very tight match but I have to say that we started slowly and I was a bit disappointed with that. We allowed them to score two quick points and that gave them an early advantage but we gradually worked our way into the game and we were only a point down at half-time but we had a few little things that we had to talk about at that stage. There were no major changes that we had to make at the break, it was a matter just off everyone doing that little bit more especially in defence and we addressed a couple of areas before we went back out for the second-half. In the dressing-room at half-time we said that the defence certainly needed to increase the tempo. We needed to be out in front more and we needed to win more of the breaks and fair play to the lads they started doing that from the beginning of the second-half and things started to come right. Once we started winning the breaks and winning possession in midfield we began to get the better of their halfbacks and our half forwards in particular started to go at them and that put them on the back foot. We had to get some early scores and we said to the boys that if we get in front we will be able to push on and win it. I have to say though that Dermot McDermott had an exceptional game for us, probably one of the best games he has played for Drumhowan. Things were going well for us at that stage but we still found it hard to put them away although I suppose that was partly down to the fact that our shooting wasn’t as good as it normally is. I think maybe it was also partly to do with the fact that Clones is such a big pitch and it was quite heavy but in the last 15 minutes James McElroy took control and he was completely on top. James had probably a slightly frustrating afternoon but everything started to go his way in the last 10 or 15 minutes and we were in control at that stage. Steve McGinnity too had an excellent match and had a hand in a lot of our scores”.
Drumhowan are now through to the semi-final, a stage they reached the last time they were in this competition so the manager had to be looking forward to that. “Yes definitely looking forward to it, we got to this stage before and unfortunately we lost by a point but we will be working now at trying to freshen things up but we’re in a very busy schedule though. This match was the sixth weekend in a row that we have been playing, we now have a league semi-final coming up and we have two members of the team who are on the St Patrick’s minor team who are in the minor championship final so we have to think of them as well. We also have to plan without Christopher McGinnity who looks as if he will be out for the rest of the season due to the injury he picked up in the county final. He is a big loss but on the other hand its good to be involved at this stage and we are looking forward to it”.
Carndonagh manager Kieran Canny was in reflective mood when he spoke to the Northern Standard and felt that while his team and club enjoyed their outing to Clones on Sunday last that they perhaps might have done a little better if they had handled some chances that came their way differently. He agreed that his side enjoyed a good start but perhaps a lack of experience in that they were a younger team on average than Drumhowan also cost them. “We got off to a good start and were winning more possession especially in the first quarter but we did miss a few chances and we also took a little bit too long in getting some shots away with the result that we didn’t use the ball as well as we should. Against that I would have to say though that Drumhowan are the strongest team that we’ve played this year and when they got ahead in the second-half it was always going to be difficult. Their defence improved and they kept hitting us on the break with the result that we couldn’t get any forward movement, we couldn’t get anything going in our forward line. The one thing the game did show was that it gave us an idea of what we have to do, the level we have to achieve if we are to compete at this level. Look we were under no illusions coming down to Clones and what we had to face. What we were hoping for was a good day and by and large we enjoyed it but I think we also suffered from the fact that we had three weeks off due to weather and the fact that there were no fixtures at home and that left us a little bit ring rusty. That showed especially in the second-half when we were under a bit of pressure”. The manager agreed that a return of one point for the second-half was disappointing but he did point out that it must close up until the final minutes and it was only a couple of mistakes that left the gap on the scoreboard that was in it at the finish. The game turned completely in the second-half but there was still only a couple of points in it with ten or 12 minutes to go. At that stage we made a bad mistake when we played a free in our defence sideways and it was intercepted and instead of us maybe going up and having a go for a score we gifted Drumhowan a point and really that had a big effect on us. That left us that we were looking for a goal although on reflection there were a couple of times when our boys looked for goals when there were points there for the taking but that’s experience and they will have learned that from this game. The one thing I have to say is that it was a very good sporting game and we certainly wish Drumhowan all the best for the remainder of the competition”. In the aftermath of the Donegal junior final Kieran Canny was quoted as saying that his side needed to be playing in a higher league if they were going to develop and they still have a chance of promotion to division 2 at home. “We have a very important game this weekend against Naomh Ultan, Martin Shovlin’s club and if we win that one we will be in division 2 next season. We are already in the intermediate championship for 2009 but we need to be competing in the higher division because even though you win in the championship in Donegal you can still be relegated in the league so we are looking forward to that and hopefully it will work out”.
