The amalgamation team of Naomh Eoin / O'Currys / Kilkee rebounded from last week's defeat to Ennistymon, when recording a hard-fought win over Cooraclare in Kilkee on Wednesday evening July 19th.
We had early points from play by Danny Downes and Eoin Haugh, sandwiched between two Cooraclare pointed frees by Ciaran O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue gave his side the lead from play, before Kieran McNamara and Downes put us back in front. Poor tackling efforts by our lads were leading to a lot of frees conceded and O'Donoghue convereted another of those to level it again before his brother Pauric scored a good long-range effort. A few poor shooting choices by our forwards kept the game finely balanced, and we had a brace of one-on-one efforts by McNamara and Downes denied by Mark Lillis in the Cooraclare goal, before a defensive slip was capitalised on by Downes, who made no mistake this time in slotting past Lillis for the opening goal, just before the break. Half time score was 1:4 to 0:5.
On the restart, Davy McNamara from play and O'Donoghue (free) had the sides level, and Cooraclare took the lead for a few moments thanks to another free. From the next attack though, a well-worked move saw the ball worked to Danny Downes who blasted to the roof of the net from close range and give us a lead we were never to relinquish. Thomas Clancy added a nice point to move us a goal clear, before O'Donoghue brought it to back to two with another placed ball. A good run in along the end line by Dylan Russell led to a nice point, and Naomh Eoin men Owen Lynch and Kieran McNamara notched two important scores to answer scores at the other end and ensure a two-point victory. A lot of improvement was seen in movement and defensive work by our lads since the previous week, but the high free count conceded in the scoring zone, and some of our decision-making at the other end, with shots being taken when one more pass was the sensible option, meant that the game was closer than it might otherwise have been. Still, a win is a win, and we have a three-week break now to work on improvements.
