Year finished on a high
November 27, 2011The league decider was played in miserable wet conditions over the penultimate weekend of Autumn, with a deluge of rain spilling on the Pairc Mhuire surface, rendering conditions extremely difficult for both sides. Latton, who had won the SFL title in 2010 (denying Clontibret a double), were bidding to complete a famous senior double themselves, having beaten Scotstown in the 2011 SFC decider. Latton were the county's form team, having lost just one of their previous 22 games.
But Clontibret - the team displaced by the O'Rahillys as county champions - had a real point to prove … not least because Latton had beaten them in the championship at Inniskeen on August 20th! This was a real clash of the big guns and a torrid struggle ensued before the O'Neills deservedly took the spoils. They may have scored just twice from play over the hour but Declan Brennan's team were full value for the victory, restricting their opponents to just six points.
County man John Paul Mone got the winners off to a dream start when he slotted home a ninth-minute penalty following a foul on his brother Fergal but they then went 20 minutes without a score (during which time Latton struck four in a row), losing their way for the remainder of the first half, to trail by 0-5 to 1-1 at the break. Substitute Ryan McGuigan fired over Clontibret's first-half point in the 29th minute - their first score from play.
Clontibret put the squeeze on Latton's celebrated midfield pairing after the resumption and the losers' frustration was evident as they had two men dismissed towards the end of a tense and tough contest.
As ever, Conor McManus (0-5) was to the fore and the O'Neills coped well with the loss of centre back Dessie Mone to injury, with young corner forward Conor Boyle slotting in seamlessly. McManus' 30-metre free had the O'Neills level within three minutes of the turnaround and Vincent Corey and McManus (free) put them two ahead. Ronan Murphy fisted one off an upright while the losers struck the woodwork twice after McManus had clipped over two more frees to make it 1-6 to 0-5.
Even though Latton did put an end to that scoring run of five points, it was Clontibret who had the last say when McManus lofted over his fifth free in the fourth minute of added time. To Corey went the honour of collecting the Owen Ward Cup, which returned to the village for the first time since 2007, ensuring that Clontibret would not suffer the disappointment of a trophyless season at senior level.
The victorious league campaign - which ran for over six months - had started and ended with narrow victories over Latton, opening with a 0-15 to 0-14 triumph on away soil on Sunday, April 17th. Three days later, Clontibret were on the road again, this time losing to Monaghan Harps by 0-17 to 0-12. And their third match in a week saw them lose again - 2-7 to 0-10 against Magheracloone at O'Neill Park. With just two points on the board from a possible six, there was work to be done…
Truagh were the next visitors on Friday April 29th and this time the home side recorded a 0-14 to 1-7 success, making it back-to-back home wins seven days later when struggling Doohamlet succumbed to a 0-16 to 0-7 beating. Two days later, Scotstown proved too strong at St Marys Park as they won by 1-10 to 0-6.
As the summer broke through, Clontibret found their rhythm with five consecutive victories over Ballybay (1-12 to 1-5 on May 22nd), Inniskeen (4-9 to 0-14 at Pairc Grattan on June 8th), Castleblayney (0-11 to 0-6 on June 11th), Monaghan Harps (1-8 to 0-9 on June 15th) and Doohamlet (2-10 to 0-10 on July 1st) before falling to a crushing 0-16 to 0-5 home defeat to Latton on Saturday, July 9th.
Magheracloone completed the double on their arch rivals with a 0-11 to 0-8 success on the Kingscourt Road but O'Neills got back to winning ways when beating Truagh in north Monaghan, 1-12 to 0-11 on Sunday, August 7th. With four rounds remaining, Clontibret were very much on course for a place in the knockout stage of the competition…
A 4-7 to 0-16 defeat at home to Scotstown on Sunday, August 14th set alarm bells ringing but the O'Neills closed out their league programme in emphatic style with three successive victories over Ballybay (3-13 to 2-4), Inniskeen (1-23 to 0-12) and Castleblayney (1-10 to 0-11 on Saturday, October 1st).
Magheracloone, Ballybay and Latton joined Clontibret in the Owen Ward Cup semi-finals. Having lost to the Mitchells twice during the league phase, the O'Neills turned the table with a 0-11 to 0-9 semi-final victory away from home in a repeat of the 2010 county championship final on Saturday, October 8th. There was no denying the merit of Clontibret O'Neills' league win as they close out their programme with five wins on the trot, including the semi-final and final.
With four county men on board (captain Conor Boyle, Conor Lavelle, Brian Greenan and Liam Savage), Clontibret also won the minor football league Division One title in 2011, finishing top of the table before beating Carrickmacross by 2-9 to 0-7 in the final at Oram on Saturday, September 24th. In the MFC, their bid for back-to-back titles was usurped by Truagh in the decider at Inniskeen on Sunday, October 9th - 2-8 to 1-8. En route to the county minor final, the O'Neills had seen off Ballybay / Drumhowan combination St Patricks (2-11 to 1-13) and Scotstown (3-8 to 2-9) in two riveting encounters. Unfortunately, bidding for a ninth MFC as a sole club, they didn't find their best form in the knockout decider and could have no complaints about the outcome.
Mentors Damien Mone, Sean Woods and Brendan Murphy did great work over the year with the minor team, who had the following personnel on duty on county final day: D McDonald; G Brennan, L Savage, C Carragher; D Wilson, A Curran (0-2), M P O'Dowd; C Boyle (captain), B Greenan; C Foentjies, L Murphy (0-1), D McKeown; S Mohan (0-1), C Lavelle (0-2), S Hughes (1-1). Subs: D Duffy for Foentjies (51); M Moen (0-1) for McKeown (53); C Murphy for L Murphy (60).
In reserve football, more silverware winged its way to O'Neill Park on Friday, July 22nd, when Clontibret beat Scotstown by 3-3 to 1-6 in Monaghan to reclaim the Crawley Cup after a two-year wait. This was the all-conquering team: Declan Savage; Brian McSkane, Kevin Ward, Christopher Tedore; Philip Rooney (captain), Fergal McGuigan, Aidan Leonard; Kieran Greenan, Fergal Greenan; Paul Winters (0-2), Fergal O'Dowd (1-0), Darren Murphy; Niall Duffy (0-1), Padraig McShane (1-0), Shane Murphy. Subs: Conor Lavelle (1-0), Brian Morgan.
Alas, there was no joy for the Saffrons in the Monaghan SFC. As defending champions, gunning for three-in-a-row, they were the first team in action in the competition, opening a double-header on the evening of Saturday, July 23rd at Ballybay with a crushing 4-15 to 0-10 victory over Inniskeen. But Latton consigned the holders to the back door when prevailing by 0-10 to 0-8 in a hard-hitting contest at Inniskeen on Saturday, August 20th and Clontibret were out of the reckoning within a fortnight when Magheracloone edged them out by 1-9 to 0-11 at the same venue.
By winning the senior league, they redeemed themselves and salvaged their season.
Clontibret O'Neills - 2011 Monaghan senior football league winners: P McElroy; P Boyle, C Greenan, P Boyle; D Carragher, D Mone, D Mooney; JP Mone (1-0), Paul McGuigan; V Corey (captain, 0-1), C McManus (0-5), R Murphy; R Gorman, F Mone, C Boyle. Subs: R McGuigan (0-1) for D Mone (12), Pádraig McGuigan for Gorman (h/t), E Greenan for Mooney (55). Tweet
