Longford MFC Final: Clonguish Og minors cruise to another Harte Cup triumph

Clonguish Og . . . 5-14   St Colmcille’s/St Francis . . . 0-3 

This Clonguish side have already got a return on investment in their underage success as the club are through to their first county senior final in 12 years with a stream of new talent undoubtedly leading the charge.

Conor Flynn, Andrew Flynn, Michael Flynn and Matthew Carey will be trying to emulate what has only been achieved twice this century, to claim the Harte and Connolly Cups in the one year following their own club’s double in 2003 as well as their forthcoming opponents Killoe’s twin win in 2012.

Those 4 minors will likely retain their starting spots in next Sunday’s SFC final and they formed the spine of this tremendous minor team at full-back, centre-back, centre-forward and full-forward respectively.

They all impressed in this one sided affair with Matthew Carey claiming his second Peter Sheridan memorial trophy with a second man of the match display after claiming his first in the victory over the same opponents two years ago. Carey top scored with 2-5 but Michael Flynn top scored from play with 1-3 while his younger brother Cormac Flynn was also influential with 1-1.

The Colmcille/Dromard/Ballymore amalgamation were completely outclassed throughout and did not manage a point from play in the game. They were undoubtedly hindered by a black card to James Ross when the game was still in touching distance in the first half.

Thoughts must also go out to last year’s county minor centre-back and the St Colmcille’s/St Francis leader Ruairi O’Toole who got seriously injured in their semi-final win over Clonbroney/Wolfe Tones on the previous Monday night and spent the week in hospital.

CLONGUISH OG: James Quinn; Robert Smith, Conor Flynn, Cormac Flynn; Jonathan Burke (1-0), Andrew Flynn (0-1), Mark Cooney; Ross Shields, Daniel Carey (0-2); Kevin Baskett, Michael Flynn (1-3), Alan Mimnagh; James Hagan, Matthew Carey (2-5, 1 pen, 3f), Cormac Flynn (1-1). 

Subs:- Jamie Dorr (0-1) for J Hagan (42 mins); Kieran McMorrow for R Smith (44 mins); John McVeigh for J Quinn (49 mins); Muna Aguneche (0-1) for A Mimnagh (55 mins); Peter Toher for M Cooney (58 mins).

ST COLMCILLE’S/ST FRANCIS:  Ryan Farrell; Enda Jobe, Niall McLoughlin, James Ross; Rory Brady, Ben O’Reilly, Ciaran Conaty; Eoghan Palin, Dylan Vance; Rian Browne, Ronan Corcoran, Matthew Farrell; Keelan Hudson, Luke Donnelly (0-2, 2f), Rian Tuite (0-1, 1f).

Subs:- William McEntire for E Jobe (17 mins); Jonah McKeon for R Corcoran (injured, 43 mins), Daniel Fahy for C Conaty (injured, 47 mins); Donnacha Reynolds for R Tuite (61 mins).

Referee: Tony Gaffney (Mostrim).