The Banner 3-4
Clooney Quin 1-5
Our minor footballers were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid to reach the Clubs first Minor Football final last weekend. Ceding home advantage to the Banner, this was always going to be a difficult task for Tom McGrath’s charges and so it proved.
Clooney Quin started very strongly though and after the Banner failed to clear their lines it was Conor O Brien who opened Clooney’s account with a smart point after 5 minutes. Shortly afterwards it was Brian Kelly’s turn, and after he weaved his way along the endline he pointed. From the resulting kick out Clooney Quin found themselves 3 points in front after Fergal Coughlan took advantage of some poor Banner defending. That was to prove Clooney Quin’s last score of the half though as the Banner stormed back into the match scoring 1-3 without reply to give themselves a decent advantage at the break. The town team also roared into action early in the second half and with 37 minutes played they were 2-3 to 0-3 in front. Clooney never gave up though and when Stephen Frain lashed the ball into the roof of the net it was game on again. Cillian Donovan scored a good point before Brendan Dolan, impressive upon his introduction, won a free that Mike Corry converted to leave just a point between the teams with a quarter left. Similar to the first half, it was as close as Clooney would get and a further goal and a point from the Banner wrapped up the victory for them.
While the season has come to an end earlier than hoped Tom Mc Grath has said they are already looking forward to the next season and wants to thank the team for their commitment to training and matches. He said, “they are a great bunch of lads and an absolute pleasure to deal with. Both myself and Peter Sheehy are looking forward to having them back next season and working towards making it to the final. We had such a good turn out for training and matches and it was a great achievement getting to the semi-final this year , we think the future of football in Quin is bright”.