How Eadestown shocked Clane in Senior Championship opener

Joe Mallon Motors SFC Preliminary Round

Eadestown 2-15

Clane 2-9

Eadestown caused the biggest upset for some time on Saturday in the last of four games in Manguard Park when they defeated Clane in the Preliminary round of the Joe Mallon Motors.

Eadestown are renowned for playing their best football come championship time but having said that few would have expected for Emmet Bolton's side to turnover Tom Cribbin's boys.

Clane would have been expected to make it the last four again this time around and while that is still very much on the cards, this display will undoubtedly cause the boys in white to do a fair bit of soul searching while Eadestown showed that if this display is anything to go on they can give most teams more than a run of their money.

Clane opened with a Sam McCormack point, quickly equalised by Cian Boran before Danny Egan and Brian McLoughlin (free) edged Clane two clear.

On a lovely afternoon for a game Eadestown came back with four points on the trot from Conor McCarthy (2), Niall Cummins and Ben Fitzsimons.

Not to be outdone the boys in white upped their game hitting 1-4, the goal coming from that lethal combination of Brian McLoughlin and Shane O'Sullivan with the latter filling the net.

Clane 1-7 Eadestown 0-5 and Clane were on their way, or so we thought.

Conor McCarthy reduced the lead with a fine point as we reached the half-time mark and four points separating the sides.

Not sure what Emmet told his players at the break but they came out with all guns blazing. Points from McCarthy (free), Eoin

Woods and Cian Boran had the lead back to one and while Sam McCormack converted a free for Clane, Eadestown came back strong with two points from Eoin Conneff to level up matters with just 38minutes on the clock.

Shane O'Sullivan was denied a goal with a brilliant diving save from Shane Sargent before the boys in blue hit the front with two Conor McCarthy points and another from Ben Fitzsimons.

Were we about to see a major upset we wondered.

Then Shane McCormack picked out Brian McLoughlin close in and the no. 13 palmed to the back of the net to level.

And that was that we thought.

But Eadestown had other ideas.

Conor McCarthy edged his side ahead with a free before Cian Boran shrugged off three or four tackles before find the back of

Cian Burke's net.

Shock back on?

Shane McCormack reduced the deficit to three before Eadestown put the final nail in the Clane coffin with Cian Boran setting up Ben Fitzsimons for goal no. 2 as the final whistle arrived.

Eadestown fully deserving of this win, played some fine football at times, they were hungrier and more up for this than their opponents and it will be interesting to see how they (and Clane) get on after this result. Final score: Eadestown 2-15 Clane 2-9.

Scorers: Eadestown, Conor McCarthy 0-7 (6 frees), Cian Boran 1-2, Ben Fitzsimons 1-2, Eoin Conneff 0-2, Niall Cummins 0-1, Eoin Woods 0-1.

Clane, Brian McLoughlin 1-4 (3 frees), Shane O'Sullivan 1-1, Sam McCormack 0-2 (1 free), Danny Egan 0-1 (45), Shane McCormack 0-1.

EADESTOWN: Shane Sargent; John Lawlor, Sean Hynes Conan Boran; Fiachra Bracken, Jack Sargent, Darragh Jameson; Rian Boran, Niall Cummins; Ben Fitzsimons, Eoin Conneff, Conan Boran; Cian Boran, Eoin Woods, Conor McCarthy. Subs: Niall Grainger for Eoin Woods (58 minutes).

CLANE: Cian Burke; Sam Reilly, Sean Callan, Jake Devey; Harry O'Neill, Chris Byrne, Tadhg Montgomery; Sean Christiansen, Shane McCormack; Cormac Vizzard, Sam McCormack, Hugh Prendergast; Brian McLoughlin, Danny Egan, Shane O'Sullivan. Subs: Conor Walsh for Chris Byrne (half-time); Stephen Brereton for Jake Devey (41 minutes); Eoin Walsh for Conor Walsh (44 minutes); Oisin Tighe for Cormac Vizzard (47 minutes).

REFEREE: Owen Murphy.