Clonard 1-07 Cortown 0-19

Cortown continued their excellent recent form with a comprehensive win over Clonard on a beautiful Tuesday evening in the opening round of the 2019 Tailteann Cup. Both sides were depleted but did include some household names as well as a few youngsters and veteran campaigners all mad for a bit of ball!

It was the visitors who were straight into the ascendency with Davy Rispin pointing from an acute angle. Rispin would double Cortown’s lead before Sergeant Brían Smith extended the buffer to 3 before the hosts registered their first score of the evening. Ryan O’Rourke would once again stretch the gap with a brace of pointed frees as the early signs looked ominous for the home side.

Clonard adopting a sweeper in front of the Cortown full forward line which did not help their cause in truth and Cortown were afforded time and space to hold possession and pick gaps in a leaky Clonard defence. They did have a couple of opportunities but were denied by the excellent Jammie Costello who made a couple of sublime saves, the second a fingertip stop onto the crossbar which was the highlight of the half.

Cortown were buoyed by this with the impressive Daragh Smith and Big Dec Clarke raiding down the sides to good effect from their wing back births. Rispin curled over a third as O’Rourke landed another 2 frees. Clonard did respond with a couple of scores from the talented duo of Mikey Mullen and Niall Smullen adding to Clonard’s tally. The returning Offaly man encouraged by Offaly’s moral win over the weekend, landed a corker just before the break to ensure Cortown boasted a comfortable lead at the interval, 0-9 to 0-3.

The one-way traffic continued early into the second half with O’Rourke adding another free along with McGuiness who was coming to the boil. Barry Canning and Daragh O’Halloran were cutting out anything that came their way with the aid of Johnny McGearty and Skipper Coyne. Big Richie Flanagan was enjoying a good return to the team with Justin ‘Daly’ Reilly getting in on the act with a winding effort.

The precession continued with scores from O’Rourke, McGuiness and another for Reilly. Smullen was the one stand-out player for the Cloanrd men with several fine points to his name. Cortown were not to be denied and Rispin tagged on another along with a textbook Colm Kerrigan swirling shot. Kevin Foley’s men did seal a consolation goal late on but it was very much Cortown’s night as McGuiness rounded off the scoring putting a cap on a fine individual and collective display with his 5th of the evening.

Cortown will be pleased with both the result and the performance as they carried on their wonderful sequence of results. Still going strong in all 3 competitions, Anthony Monaghan’s men can look forward to a Quarter-Final meeting against either Kilbride or arch rivals Drumconrath.

Cortown: Jammie Costello, Davy Coyne, Barry Canning, John McGearty, Daragh Smith, Daragh O’Halloran, Decky Clarke, Richie Flanagan, Hugh Staunton, Conor Mulroe, Kevin McGuiness (0-5,1f), Ryan O’Rourke (0-6fs), Brían Smith (0-1), Justin Reilly (0-2), Davy Rispin (0-4).

Subs: Colm Kerrigan (0-1) for Mulroe, Ryan Henry for O’Rourke.  

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