Clonard 1-11 Boardsmill 1-11

Clonard opened their championship campaign in perfect conditions for football on Thursday night when they locked horns with Boardsmill in Longwood’s fine facilities.

Boardsmill started the game strongly and dominated possession in the opening quarter, fully justifying their favorites tag and led of 0-3 to 0-0 after 14 minutes. But Clonard kept plugging away and were rewarded with a fortuitous goal from Eoghan Connolly after a pointed attempt.  That seemed to lift the 200/1 Junior B outsiders as they dominated the remainder of the half.

Defensively Clonard continued to turnover Boardsmill attacks as Jason Moore, Rourk Shaw, and Dylan Duignan constantly dispossessed their opponents. And they needed to as Boardsmill were getting the better of the midfield exchanges.

At the other end of the field Clonard were finding their range as frees from Kayden Plunkett and Kian Campbell (2 pointer) further extended their lead. Dylan Duignan added another that his performance deserved as Plunkett finished out the scoring for the half with a sublime 2 pointer from play.  Half time Clonard 1-8 Boardsmill 0-4.

Clonard continued to dominate play in the second half and also continued to thwart Boardsmill attacks but wayward shooting from both sides meant that it took 10 minutes to register the first score as Dylan Flanagan popped over a fine point after a great move and run. Clonard were now eight clear and looking like being very surprising winners by most pundits pre match.

Then came the turning point of the game as Boardsmill registered a goal when their attacker rounded stand-in keeper Eoghan Dowdall to blast to an empty net as Dowdall had done well to prevent a pointed effort. An unnecessary altercation followed and Dowdall received his marching orders as Clonard were down to 14 men.

Clonard continued to dig in and produced huge effort levels all over the pitch but were denied a second goal by a goal line clearance with the keeper beaten. Boardsmill then registered further scores to move them two points clear.

The dual club were also denied their second major, which would surely have secured the win by a brilliant point blank save from the versatile Ciaran Murray who confidently wore the keeper’s jersey following Dowdall’s dismissal.

But deep into injury time with Boardsmill two points up, Clonard continued to press. Campbell found Plunkett inside the 20-metre line and the classy forward rounded his man to go for goal but was hauled down cynically on the edge of the box.  With a 13-metre free awarded and the last attack of the game, the free was worthless so Clonard worked it back out and Kian Campbell found his range, after a couple of earlier missed efforts, with an excellent two pointer under pressure to claim a fully deserved draw with the last kick of the game.

An absorbing encounter and a great advertisement for Junior B football in Meath.

Clonard: Eoghan Dowdall, Rourk Shaw, Jason Moore, Brian O’Reilly, Andrew Hannon, Jason Dowdall (C), Shane Walsh-Oxley, Kian Campbell (0-4), Niall McHugh, Eoghan Connolly (1-1), Ciaran Murray, Dylan Duignan (0-1), Kayden Plunkett (0-4), Dylan Flanagan (0-1), Ryan Raleigh.

Subs Used: Daniel Johns for E.Connolly, Stephen O’Reilly for Ryan Raleigh.

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