Clinton's dead ball skills help Delvin to victory over neighbours

Delvin 3-13 Brownstown 1-11

Jason Keelan

Darragh Clinton’s eight frees from near and far were key to Delvin claiming a merited eight-point win over near-neighbours Brownstown in their Slevin’s Coaches Senior B Hurling Championship clash in Raharney yesterday evening.

Delvin owe much to the immense work of the 3 Cs up top – Coll, Clinton and Carolan – as their running power and speed left the blue jerseys chasing shadows at times.

Delvin showed the early promise but had a trio of wides before Clinton opened his scoring from a free to follow Fitzsimon’s getting his first for Brownstown. The opening goal of the game will disappoint the men from Archerstown. A long ball in – one of many at both ends throughout – was touched in via Eoin Carolan who got up ahead of goalkeeper James Moore.

Delvin constantly looked for quick ball from their own half to find the diagonal runs of Coll and co up front. More frees were exchanged between Clinton and Fitzsimons before Dean Ennis scored neatly off his right following precise build-up play from the back by Delvin.

Ronan Kelly was working hard in the defensive role, Patrick Poynton held midfield well and the outstanding Adam Ennis for Delvin seemed to always be there when Brownstown looked to find their target men.

Brownstown were simply second to most challenges and the punishment continued when Coll buried his first goal to the roof of the net after a neat pass from Killian Murphy.

There was a sense of panic in some of the Brownstown play and shooting, evidenced by the fact their only five scores in the half came from Fitzsimon’s frees. Already in control, Delvin were awarded a penalty on the half hour mark when Dean Ennis was fouled in the act of shooting. However, Clinton saw his well-drilled effort saved tremendously by Moore, keeping his side ten behind at the interval.

The restart saw some positives for the trailing side – Conor Rice hit their first point from play and Robbie Dugdale calmly found the net. Despite some semblance of a revival, Brownstown failed to halt the Delvin threat and a stunning flick from Carolan allowed Coll to tap home to an empty net to leave it double scores – 3-11 to 1-7. Things looked like they were about to get worse when Coll was dragged down for another penalty. Once again Moore made another instinctive save to notch his second penalty stop. The remaining minutes saw a trade-off of frees between Fitzsimons (3) and Clinton (2) to give Delvin their second win in under a week and keep their push to the top going.

Scorers:

Brownstown: J Fitzsimons 0-10 (10f), R Dugdale 1-0, C Rice 0-1

Delvin: D Clinton 0-9 (8f), J Coll 2-1, E Carolan 1-0, D Ennis 0-2, R Kelly 0-1

Teams:

Brownstown: James Moore; Kenny Higgins, Conor Shaw, Jack Gavin; Tom Flynn, Shaun Smith, Ross Daly; Philip Gilsenan, Paddy Reilly; Emmet Cunning, Conor Rice, Robbie Dugdale; Jamie Fitzsimons, Niall Leonard, Matthew Smith. Subs Used: Oisín Kieran for Higgins (30), Danny Henry for S Smith (30), Gary Smith for Dugdale (58)

Delvin: Tadhg Kelly; Francis McGrath, Patrick Clune, Brian Herward; Dean Poynton, Adam Ennis, Fintan Cox; Patrick Poynton, Patrick Farrington; Dean Ennis, Killian Murphy, Ronan Kelly; Josh Coll, Darragh Clinton, Eoin Carolan. Subs Used: Stephen Reilly for K Murphy (55), Aaron Fenlon for F Cox (57)

Referee: Derek Heffernan (Killucan)

Match at a Glance

Player of the Match

Adam Ennis was superb throughout and so much of the Delvin scoring came from his turnovers and vision. Mentions for Kelly, Coll and Carolan whose running angles made them impossible to deal with.

Key Moment

Just when it looked like Brownstown might be attempting a comeback with Dugdale’s goal, Delvin responded with their third goal (through Coll) less than 90 seconds later to kill the momentum.