It was all over by the first water break.
Pre-game, there were reflections online going back to the U21 meeting of Éire Óg and Clonmore in 1987. Back then, it took three games to get a winner. On Wednesday evening it looked like the writing was on the wall
If “goals win games”, it was about to rain in Netwatch Cullen Park.
Indeed, Éire Óg were 1-1 up inside the opening five minutes, adding two more goals to that tally before the first-half water break hit with Adam McCarron picking up two.
By halftime, it wasn’t getting any better for Clonmore, as they shipped another 1-3 to send the sides in at the break 4-4 to 0-1.
Defensive errors were high on Clonmore’s CV for the night, McCarron adding a second-half penalty shortly after the restart to make it two from the spot for him and a hat-trick on the night.
By the time the second-half water break landed, it was “seventh heaven” for Éire Óg with Adam and Kieran Nolan linking up well to bring the score to 7-6 to a single point. Davy Dunphy added an eighth before Ben Crotty made it nine goals, converting a penalty to seal a hat-trick of his own.
Utter dominance from Éire Óg who leave Netwatch Cullen Park with a 9-9 to 0-2 victory and this year’s Stryve U20 A championship.
The B championship final, originally booked for last night, will be played off at 6pm on Saturday 8 January.
