Clonad 5-11 Camross 2-10
Laois Shopping Centre Intermediate Hurling Championship Quarter Final Replay
The sides couldn’t be split at the weekend but Clonad had little trouble this time as they ran out comfortable ten point winners in the Laois Training Centre last night.
Clonad were without Micheal Kerr for this replay but the Norton brothers, Murt and Enda, contributed 3-7 between them in his absence with birthday boy Murt helping himself to 2-1.
Enda got proceedings underway with two frees while Camross got off the mark thanks to two of their minor stars.
David Brickley shot over their first point before dual star Rob Tyrrell helped himself to a goal to give them the lead.
Ray Killeen, Murt Norton, Seoirse Conroy and Paddy Norton all pointed to re-establish Clonad’s lead by the midpoint of the half.
Another of Camross’ minor championship winning stars, Eoin Gaughan, pointed four frees before half time but Clonad held a six point advantage at the break thanks to two late goals.
The first fell to Murt Norton after some great work by his brother Enda and he soon returned the favour to leave the latter shoot low beneath Thomas Dunphy – 2-8 to 1-5 to Clonad was the half time score.
And they set about making the tie safe on the restart as they fired in three more goals in the third quarter of the game.
The first of those came straight from the throw in when Enda Norton again created the space for his younger brother Murt to rattle the net.
Eoin Gaughan responded with a free and Camross went in search of a goal of their own then but Oisin Bennett found the excellent Colin Delaney in the was of his low shot – the keeper flying across his line to keep the ball out of the bottom corner.
Bennett did record a point a short time later but Clonad replied with another goal when a long ball found Ray Killeen who beat keeper Dunphy from close range.
The goalmouth action was coming thick and fast at both ends now and the excellent Delaney was called into action again in the 40th minute when he showed incredible reflexes to divert Eoin Gaughan’s pile-driver out for a 65.
James Doran and Gaughan raised white flags for Camrss but a goal from Cathal Bergin left Clonad 5-10 to 1-9 ahead as we entered the final quarter.
The scoring calmed down from here with Enda Norton and Gaughan trading frees before Camross finally found a way past Colin Delaney in the second half when substitute Cian Delaney beat him from close range.
The game was then delayed by 25 minutes following a serious injury to John Noonan after an accidental collision with one of his own team-mates.
He was attended to on the pitch as he awaited for an ambulance to arrive.
When play eventually restarted, neither team managed to score in the time that remained and Clonad now advance to play Trumera in three weeks time.
SCORERS – CLONAD: Enda Norton 1-6 (0-3 frees), Murt Norton 2-1, Ray Killeen 1-1, Cathal Bergin 1-0, Paddy Norton 0-2 (0-2 frees), Seoirse Conroy 0-1 CAMROSS: Eoin Gaughan 0-7 (0-6 frees), Rob Tyrrell and Cian Delaney 1-0 each, David Brickley, James Doran and Oisin Bennett 0-1 each
CLONAD: Colin Delaney; Peter Ging, Emmett Ging, Denis Sheeran; Gary Hogan, Brian Murphy, Paddy Norton; James Ging, John Noonan; Seoirse Conroy, Ray Killeen, Cathal Bergin; Martin Norton, Enda Norton, Paul Ging. Subs: David McEvoy for Conroy (51mins), Joe McEvoy for Bergin (52mins), Ger Corcoran for M Norton (54mins), Mark Onions for Sheeran (57mins), Sean Egan for Noonan (58mins, inj)
CAMROSS: Thomas Dunphy; Oliver Conroy, Dan Breen, Colin Palmer; Mark Conroy, Malvin Moloney, Tadhg Drennan; David Brickley, Matthew Collier; Rob Tyrrell, James O’Keeffe, Darren Drennan; Eoin Gaughan, Oisin Bennett, Patrick Burke. Subs: James Doran for Burke (ht), Mikey Doran for O’Keeffe (39mins), Tomás Palmer for C Palmer (41mins), Paddy Bergin for Brickley (51mins), Cian Delaney for Drennan (54mins)
Referee: Noel Twomey (Park-Ratheniska)
