Dooley's sharpshooting key asTullamore survive late assault
Monday November 16 2009
RED-HOT favourites Tullamore were forced to endure a very worrying closing 12 minutes at Cusack Park, Mullingar yesterday.
The Offaly champions, playing their opening match in the provincial campaign after winning their first county title since 1964, looked comfortably on course for the decider against Ballyhale Shamrocks on Sunday week when they surged into a 1-11 to 0-8 lead on 51 minutes.
But two minutes later the contest was thrown wide open when a 45-metre free from Clonkill's Brendan Murtagh went all the way to the net through a forest of bodies, leaving just three points between the sides.
On 58 minutes, the visiting side had good reason to thank 48-year-old goalkeeper Damien Fox when he pulled off a magnificent save from Owen Price, only for sub Anthony Price to snap up the rebound and shoot over to reduce the Westmeath champions' deficit to just two points.
However, despite five minutes of added time being played, Clonkill failed to add to their tally. The last score came from Tullamore's Shane Dooley from a 75-metre free to bring his day's haul to eight points, seven from frees and one from a '65.
The exchanges twice boiled over in the additional time played by referee James Owens. In the first altercation involving many players, Clonkill's Alan Dowdall and Tullamore's Brendan Dagg were yellow-carded. And just before the end, a similar multi-player melee led to Clonkill sub Price being red-carded.
Sharpshooter Dooley, son of Offaly senior boss Joe, failed to convert only one placed ball, and his ability to win possession and his lightning bursts of pace frequently had the alarm bells ringing loudly in the Clonkill defence.
"Thankfully for us, Shane was really on song with his free-taking today, and he's the kind of lad who really enjoys taking frees," said Tullamore player-manager Kevin Martin, who was recently appointed Westmeath hurling supremo.
Former Offaly ace Martin was also grateful that Clonkill failed to remotely match Dooley in the shooting accuracy department. The Westmeath side shot 12 wides compared to just four by Tullamore.
"We were very economical with our shooting, and the fact that the pitch was in super nick was a big help," said Martin, whose side held a slender 1-5 to 0-7 lead at half-time.
On four minutes, Clonkill had a narrow escape, when Dooley set up Francis Kerrigan who struck the right upright with a fierce shot.
However, Kerrigan did find the net on 19 minutes when after gathering a long ball from centre-forward Jody Duffy, he gave 'keeper Murray no chance with a low shot to the corner.
That score put Tullamore 1-4 to 0-2 in front, and seemed to signal the opening of the floodgates in favour of the Faithful County outfit. But Clonkill struck back with five points to their opponents' solitary score in the 11 minutes up to half-time.
The Clonkill team as a whole did not function as effectively in the second half as in the first, and eight wides in the latter period seriously militated against their chances.
And fortune certainly did not favour the brave Westmeath challengers on 47 minutes, when, after a pacy defence-splitting run, Alan Dowdall crashed a tremendous shot off the Tullamore crossbar.
SCORERS -- Tullamore: S Dooley 0-8 (7f, 1 '65); F Kerrigan 1-1; S Kelly 0-2; K Martin 0-1. Clonkill: B Murtagh 1-1 (1-1f); A Mitchell (0-2 '65); P Dowdall, L Folan 0-2 each; O Price, A Price 0-1 each.
TULLAMORE -- D Fox; A Martin, C Bane, S Egan; N Mannion, B Dagg, H Treacy; J Keane, S Kelly; E Finnerty, J Duffy, G Treacy; S Dooley, K Martin, F Kerrigan. Subs: S Martin for Finnerty (52).
CLONKILL -- B Murray; S Cleary, A Price, M Scally; O Price, A Mitchell, S Loughlin; F Fagan, S Power; P Dowdall, B Murtagh, A Dowdall; M Heffernan, L Donohue, L Folan. Subs: E Loughlin for Heffernan (37), A Price for Fagan (39), A McGrath for Power (52), C Austin for Donohue (57).
REF -- J Owens (Wexford).
Irish Independent
