Cusack Cup Senior Football League - Thursday March 31st, 2022.

Eire Og 1-09 Doonbeg 1-10

At the end of this Cusack Cup encounter today, the Doonbeg team and supporters celebrated like they had regained the Jack Daly trophy. Doonbeg won this tough close battle out in Kilrush under the lights by a single disputed point. Regardless of the outcome, this close hard battle will stand to the Eire Og senior footballers. It was a much-improved performance from the footballers after their last outing against Ennistymon. They were unlucky to lose out by a single point, a draw would have been a much fairer result.

Young Andrew McElwee started the scoring for Eire Og with a well-taken left-footed point, he opened the scoring the previous night for the Junior hurlers in a similar manner. Eire Og then took control with the Doonbeg defence struggling to contain both Mark McInerney and Philip Talty. Doonbeg clawed their way back into the game with a succession of points that forced the Eire Og defence on the back foot. Doonbeg went into the interval a point ahead with 0-7 to 0-6.

Right after the resumption of the 2nd half, a blistering shot from Niall O’Donoghue rattled the post and young McElwee pounced on the rebound to rattle the net. Doonbeg were never going to take that lying down and stormed back into the match with a deflected goal that left Peadar O’Keefe in the Eire Og goals with no chance. The sides traded points in a tight close affair with the sides level heading into added time.

A draw looked on the cards until a disputed point from the veteran Doonbeg defender, Pauric Ahern, edged the west Clare team ahead and despite incessant pressure from the Townies, they just couldn’t find an equalizer. Conal O’Hanafein was back to his intercounty best in the middle while Einne O’Connor was greased lightning up the wing.

Match photos to follow on Facebook.