Clare Senior Football Championship 2nd Round - Sunday 21st August 2022

Eire Og 3-11 St. Joseph's Milltown Malbay 0-13

The Eire Og senior footballers powered to their 2nd win in a row today in sunny conditions out in Kilmihil this morning. This truly was a clash of the titans with little expected between the two sides beforehand, especially in the narrow confines of the pitch out in Kilmihil in west Clare. Milltown last claimed the Jack Daly cup in 2019 and still had many of the same personnel onboard hence a tough close encounter was anticipated.

The Townies started out positively winning the throw-in and running at the Milltown defence. Milltown kept 13 men behind the ball in a massed defence that meant the men in red had to be patient and move the ball from left to right probing for openings. The opening scores came from placed balls from Gavin Cooney after Philip Talty was upended unceremoniously.

While Milltown packed their defence, they were dangerous on the break with Cormac Murray the focal point of their attack giving Manus Doherty a run for his money. Murray kept Milltown in touch throughout the 1st half. The Townies went in at the break 2 points ahead; 0-9 to 0-7.

The game continued in that nip and tuck fashion with the resumption until a misplaced pass by the Milltown forwards allowed the men in red to break at speed with Ikem Uguweru tearing through the west Clare men’s defence to feed Mark McInerney who buried the ball in the net. To this point in the game, Mark had been having one of his quietest games in the red shirt but then he exploded for 2 more goals, the 3rd one being a beauty!

With those goals, the game proceeded to its inevitable conclusion with the Townies winning by 7 clear points in the end - 3-11 to 0-13. This leaves Eire Og top of their group with the quarter-finals beckoning. St. Breckans and Corofin are in joint 2nd place with 1 win a piece, even though the Lisdoon men beat Corofin yesterday by 4 points. Milltown are now bringing up the rear and in danger of being dragged into a relegation battle. Corofin are up next for the Townies in 2 week’s time and I'm sure Paul Madden & his management team will want to keep that winning momentum.

Match photos to follow on Facebook.