Moy Davitts weave some magic to take derby spoils

Mayo U21 ‘A’ Football Championship Group 2 – Round 3 

Bohola Moy Davitts 3-12 

Knockmore 0-8 

Paul O’Malley at St Joseph’s Park, Knockmore 

Moy Davitts’ lethal attacking edge was far too great a task for Knockmore to match on Sunday morning as they fell to a heavy defeat in the U21 Championship against their near neighbours.

Colm Reape and Cian McHale deserve plaudits for their scoring contributions but the standout forward for Moy Davitts, on a morning where they scored all bar one point of their 3-12 haul from play, was Jamie Clarke. In addition to scoring 0-3, he was central to all things positive for Moy Davitts.

It was a drab day for Knockmore, who in contrast to their free-scoring opponents, endured a scoring drought of nearly half an hour. Further to this, they didn’t score from play from the sixth minute until the 58th minute.

They looked much brighter in the opening minutes as scores, two thumping efforts from Oran Timlin and Oliver Armstrong, gave them an early cushion. But six minutes later, Moy Davitts roared into a lead they never looked back from.

Sean Ruane applied the finishing touch to a well-worked move for their opening point before a deft dummy from Jamie Clarke left a Knockmore defender sliding through the muck, and he popped the ball between the posts.

It had taken midfielders Fiachra Cruise and Colm McHale a few minutes to settle into the game, up against two big opposite numbers in Tadhg Staunton and Oliver Armstrong. Cruise came good, bursting through the park and drew a foul. Cian McHale scored the resulting free and just seconds later, turned over Armstrong about 45 metres from the Knockmore goal and fired over his second point in quick succession.

Colm Reape was next on the scoresheet for Moy Davitts, firing over from play and then things quickly began to look ominous for Knockmore as they shipped the game’s first goal. Clarke went on a barnstorming run through the heart of the defence and found Colm Reape in plenty of space and he applied the finish.

Moy Davitts increased their wide count to five before the half-time whistle as they stayed on the attack. Their persistence paid off and they soon had their second goal. It was a simple one-two straight out of a basketball playbook, as Cathal Clarke played a ball out to Conor Ryder before continuing his run through and palming Ryder’s return pass into the back of the net.

Reape added two further points to his tally, the first coming just 24 seconds into the second-half. The visitors were then denied a wondergoal; Jamie Clarke danced and dribbled his way past four Knockmore defenders and played in Reape, whose shot was blocked and sent wide.

From the resulting ’45, Cian McHale opted to pass instead of shoot. It fell to Reape, who had caught his marker off guard, and he fired over his third point within four minutes of the start of the second-half.

Dylan Coleman finally got the hosts moving on the scoreboard again, planting a ’45 between the posts. It was their first score for 29 minutes. He followed this up with a free, five minutes later.

Conor Ryder and Clarke added further scores for Moy Davitts before Reape added his fifth point of the afternoon. Knockmore’s next three scores all came from marks and were well-taken by Tadhg Staunton, Coleman and Mikey McHale. Jamie Clarke added Moy Davitts final point of the morning while Staunton added Knockmore’s final point to the board.

But Moy Davitts had saved their best until last and scored the final goal of the game with time almost up. They cleared the ball out of defence and found Colm McHale around halfway. He laid it off to Reape who in turn played it to Cathal Clarke. One Clarke found another, as Cathal played it to younger brother Jamie, who played a lovely pass to the man inside, Cian McHale, who finished the move in style, firing the ball into the net under pressure from the defence.

Scorers – Moy Davitts: Colm Reape 1-5, Cian McHale 1-2 (0-1f), Cathal Clarke 1-0, Jamie Clarke 0-3, Sean Ruane and Conor Ryder 0-1 each.

Knockmore: Dylan Coleman 0-3 (1m, 1f, 1’45), Tadhg Staunton 0-2 (1m), Oran Timlin, Oliver Armstrong and Mikey McHale (m) 0-1 each.

Knockmore: Jim Kelly; Diarmuid Breslin, Ethan Clarke, Sean McLoughlin; Darragh Staunton, Adam Battle, Oran Timlin; Tadhg Staunton, Oliver Armstrong; Dylan Coleman, Fergal Keane, Brian Durkan: Mikey McHale, Charlie Bourke, Tadhg O’Sullivan. Subs: Ronan Holmes, Adrian Sotoparra and Keith Langan (for O’Sullivan, E Clarke and D Staunton 43), Tom Horgan and Mark Melvin (for McLoughlin and Keane 55).

Moy Davitts: Bryan Lavelle; Colm Carney, Tadhg Ruane, Kieran Molloy; Conor Ryder, Jack Dunleavy, Ajay McGrath; Fiachra Cruise, Colm McHale; Cathal Clarke, Cian McHale, Sean Ruane; Sean O’Neill, Colm Reape, Jamie Clarke. Subs: Richard Hanahoe (for Carney 51), Dylan Dunleavy (for McGrath 56), Adam Conlon (for O’Neill 59).

REF: Frank Flynn (Aghamore)