Longford JFC: Clonguish overcome Legan to reach the Junior ‘A’ Championship final

Clonguish qualified for the Junior A Football Championship final with a hard fought three-point victory over a gallant Legan Sarsfields side at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Sunday last with Michael Glennon’s 58th minute goal proving the difference. 

Clonguish . . . 2-9     Legan Sarsfields . . . 1-9

The lively Josh Sorohan opened the scoring for the Newtownforbes side on three minutes but Gary Keena responded for Legan with a free two minutes later.

Legan had a very lucky escape in the sixth minute as a great move that resulted in Sorohan palming a David Barden pass to the net was disallowed for a square ball.

Two minutes later the Sarsfields rattled the Clonguish net but this goal stood as a brilliant pass from Keena found Shane Burke and he blasted the ball past Clonguish keeper Declan McKenna to the bottom right corner.

Legan increased their lead to three points moments later when Keena fired over an excellent point from play, but three minutes later Sorohan split the uprights with his second point of the contest.

In the fourteenth minute the dangerous Sorohan almost equalised but after weaving his way past two defenders, his shot was superbly saved by Legan keeper Chris Yorke.

Darragh McLoughlin slotted over his side’s third point on sixteen minutes to reduce the deficit to two points with Clonguish trailing by 0-03 to 1-02.

Legan should have raised the green flag on twenty minutes when Shane Cox delivered a perfectly weighted defence splitting pass into Burke twenty metres out from goal but his curling shot with the outside of his right boot produced a magnificent save from Clonguish stopper McKenna.

Niall O’Reilly then scored three points in two minutes, a brilliant two-pointer from way out on the left to level the contest and then he added another point to give Clonguish a one-point lead with twenty-six minutes on the clock.

The men in green were unlucky not to go four points clear on twenty-eight minutes as a clever ball from O’Reilly picked out Glennon but his thumping shot came back off the crossbar.

Clonguish went in at the break leading by two points, 0-07 to 1-02 as Darran Quinn concluded the first half scoring.

Two minutes into the second half Sorohan rattled the Legan net and this time his goal was deemed good. Sorohan received a pin-point long pass from Barden, he ran in from the right and cleverly created an angle for himself before planting a low shot into the Legan net. 

When O’Reilly added another point three minutes later, Clonguish had extended their advantage to six points, 1-8 to 1-2.

Legan then hit a purple patch between the forty-second and fifty-fifth minute when they registered six unanswered points to draw level at 1-8 each.

Keena fired over a free, Dylan Boylan landed a stunning two-pointer, Dwayne McDonnell pointed from a Keena pass, Noel O’Neill also raised the white flag, and Keena slotted over another free, and suddenly the game was in the melting pot with five minutes remaining.

However, when a Sorohan shot came back off the crossbar on fifty-eight minutes, Glennon was on hand to fire home a goal from close range for the match winning score. Legan could only reply with a John Leonard point before McLoughlin sent over the final point of the game for the Clonguish second string.

 CLONGUISH: Declan McKenna; Michael McCann, Adam Shields, Brendan Devine; Darran Quinn (0-1), Robert Smith, Darragh McLoughlin (0-2); Packie Molloy, Dan Crossan; Ryan McHugh, Niall O’Reilly (0-4, one two-pointer),  Michael Glennon (1-0); Josh Sorohan (1-2), David Barden, Aidan O’Ceallaigh.

Subs:-  Mark McHugh for Barden (44 mins), Cormac Flynn for O’Ceallaigh (47 mins), David Doherty for Quinn (50 mins), James Tormey for McKenna (52 mins), Brian Brady for McLoughlin (58 mins).

LEGAN SARSFIELDS:  Chris Yorke, Jake Boylan, Jack Grzywacz, Shane Grimes, Eoin Kiernan, Joe Keogh, John Leonard (0-01), Ryan Murphy, Adam Doherty, Dwayne McDonnell (0-01), Dylan Boylan (0-2, one two-pointer), Noel O’Neill (0-01), Gary Keena (0-04, 3 frees), Shane Burke (1-00), Shane Cox.

Subs:- Brandon Cooke for Grimes (34 minutes), Matthew Doherty for Adam Doherty (40 minutes).

Referee: David Tiernan (Ardagh Moydow).