Miltown sign off for championship '09

Miltown played Kilrush in the quarter final of the senior championship under hot sun in Cooraclare on Saturday. Both teams started nervously with a number of failed attempts before Eoin Curtin opened the score for Miltown with a well won free. This was answered almost immediately by a goal from Kilrush after the Kilrush forwards responded quickest to a loose ball in the square to tap it into the net. This goal spurred Miltown on and they answered with two points from frees. The teams traded points for most of the half but Kilrush’s dominance around the middle of the field became more pronounced towards the end of the half resulting in 3 unanswered points from Kilrush before the break. Miltown started well in the second half and some good play resulted in Joe Curtin scoring a lovely point. This point was the first and only score Miltown had from play and proved to be the last score for Miltown. With 10 to go there was still just two points between the teams and despite some valiant play from the likes of Enda Malone and the Kelly brothers Miltown were unable to make any inroads into a Kilrush team who were growing in confidence as the game progressed. Ultimately Kilrush’s dominance around the middle of the field offered them an attacking platform that was too much for Miltown, Kilrush now progress to meet Kilkee in the semi-final. The final score was Kilrush 1-8 Miltown 0-6.

Despite the result Miltown have a lot of positives to take from the year with the emergence of number of young players who with out exception have performed very well this year. These players will benefit from there experience this year and will provide new life to the team for next year. The team should take this together with the players to return from the injury list for next year as a great foundation on which to build on there best result for 3 years. A greater strength to the panel is key in order to move forward for 2010 as a crippling long term injury list left the squad very threadbare throughout the 2009 championship. The team lined out as follows versus Kilrush:

C O’ Loughlin, E O’ Gorman, G Kelly, E Malone, B Curtin, G Kelly, M Hehir, C Lafferty, M Neylon, E Curtin, S O’ Connell, D Talty, D Molohan, K Burke, S Malone,

Subs: M Barry for M Neylon, J Curtin for D Talty, M Neylon for S O’ Connell

Miltown St Josephs football club would like to thank the players, management and mentors for the effort and work they put in this year.