‘Town unable to stop march of Moy men
Conor Reid slips past Charlestown’s Ben Conway on his way to scoring a first-half goal for Moy Davitts in the home side's victory in last Friday night's Mayo SFL Division 2 clash in Foxford. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Momentum is gradually building on Moyside as a third straight win moved Moy Davitts further up the Division 2 table, leapfrogging Friday night’s visitors to Foxford in the process.
Where Moy Davitts had lost their first four league games of the season, Charlestown Sarsfields are now four games without a win and second bottom of the table, albeit it’s a division so tight that already the relegation battle looks sure to involve multiple teams up until the final day of the season.
The midfield dominance of Conor Reid and Oisin McHugh, a classy performance by centre-back Colm McHale, and excellent shooting by Ronan Clarke, were significant differences between the teams, as Moy Davitts led by eight points at half-time and prevented wind-assisted Charlestown from making any major inroads into that gap after half-time.
Sarsfields were overly reliant on the free-taking of Colm Maye and as a team they scored just 1-3 from open play. They might rue the first quarter in particular, where despite facing into the stiff breeze they enjoyed copious amounts of possession only to kick five wides inside the opening 13 minutes.
Tomás Goldrick heavily influenced Charlestown’s opening attack which resulted in a second minute point for Ruairi Cullen but by the time Colm Maye doubled their tally from a free with the first of his eleven points in the eleventh minute, Moy Davitts had already reeled off a goal and four.
Colm McHale got them moving with a magnificent two-pointer and in between singles by Conor Reid and Ronan Clarke came the opening goal, as Stephen Clarke’s kick from the left wing dipped inside goalkeeper Kenneth Brennan’s left-hand post.
In a double whammy for Charlestown, Paddy Goldrick was denied a goal at the other end just a minute later, by an excellent block from Moy Davitts full-back Neil Murphy. And it got even worse for the men in green in the 15th minute when Moy Davitts goalkeeper Chris McGlynn picked out David Byrne from a restart and Jamie Clarke and Ronan Clarke joined in the pitch-length move which ended with Conor Reid arrowing home a second goal for the hosts with expert precision for a 2-4 to 0-2 advantage.
Colm Maye pulled back four points from frees, including a superb two-pointer off the deck into the wind, and Matthew Lenehan and Niall Towey combined to set up Thomas Holton for a point from play, but Moy Davitts would close out the half very impressively. In fact, two pointers by Ronan Clarke and Colm McHale in the 24th and 25th minutes were complemented by a third, by Clarke, in the 29th, except the officials hadn’t the same angle as this reporter and the corner-forward’s effort was unfairly flagged wide. Still, when Conor Reid took on his direct opponent Eoin Murphy and drilled over a point in the final play of the first-half, Moy Davitts were now 2-9 to 0-7 ahead.
The winning of this game was probably in how the home side began the second-half, as they struck the first three points inside five minutes, through Ronan Clarke, a free, Padraig Ruane, and the hardworking Oisin McHugh. Indeed, despite the elements in their favour, Charlestown were only able to score three points during the third quarter – frees by Cullen and Maye and from play by Maye, on the back of good work by both Ben Conway, who ran powerfully up the pitch from full-back, and Ben Crean, who showed well for ball all evening.
Moy Davitts, however, maintained their eleven points lead as Reid, scoring a mark after first drawing a save from Brennan, and the Clarke boys, Ronan, a free, and Stephen, all bisected the posts.
Charlestown didn’t throw in the towel and after Colm Maye drilled over another two-point free, a lightning quick move saw Ben Crean and substitute Tadgh Horkan set-up another sub, Niall Fleming, for a badly-needed goal, which left the scoreboard reading 2-15 to 1-12 with 49 minutes on the clock.
Only one more score however, with the breeze at their backs, was a poor reflection on Charlestown over the time that remained, although credit must go to the Moy Davitts defence who had looked up for the challenge all evening.
There was the strange double occurrence of Charlestown substitute Sean Dunleavy lasting barely 20 seconds on the pitch before black carded by referee Shane Corcoran who shortly after did likewise to Sean Reid less than two minutes after his introduction for Moy Davitts. But nothing much was to change on the scoreboard, as two points by Ronan Clarke, a free included, elicited a Colm Maye two pointer in response, after the Moy Davitts attack was guilty of the game’s only breach.
Charlestown face another tricky all-East Mayo clash next weekend when they host Aghamore while Moy Davitts are on the road to Ballinrobe.
Scorers – Moy Davitts: Ronan Clarke 0-1-5 (3f), Conor Reid 1-0-3 (0-1m), Stephen Clarke 1-0-1, Colm McHale 0-2-0, Oisin McHugh and Padraig Ruane 0-0-1 each.
Charlestown: Colm Maye 0-3-5 (3tpf, 4f), Niall Fleming 1-0-0, Ruairi Cullen 0-0-2 (1f), Thomas Holton 0-0-1.
Moy Davitts: Chris McGlynn; Ajay McGrath, Neil Murphy, Cathal Clarke; Jack Dunleavy, Colm McHale, Conor Ryder; Conor Reid, Oisin McHugh; David Byrne, Jamie Clarke, Stephen Clarke; Padraig Ruane, Brian Heneghan, Ronan Clarke. Subs: Sean Kelly (for J Clarke 49), Sean Reid and Sean Mulroy (for S Clarke and Byrne 60).
Charlestown: Kenneth Brennan; Alan Woods, Ben Conway, Owen Flannery; Patrick Dunleavy, Tomás Goldrick, Jack Corley; Thomas Holton, Eoin Murphy; Ruairi Cullen, Patrick Goldrick, Niall Towey; Ben Crean, Matthew Lenehan, Colm Maye. Subs: Tadgh Horkan (for Goldrick 35, inj), Niall Fleming (for Towey 39), Niall Murphy (for Dunleavy 53), Sean Dunleavy (for E Murphy 58).
REF: Shane Corcoran (Islandeady)
