Clonmany progress to cup final
Ulster Junior Cup Semi Final 02.04.08

Clonmany...3 (Philip Devlin ’51, Jason Devlin ’78, Brendan Devlin ’83) Redcastle...1 (Joe Doherty ’86) by Michael Stamp, Inishowen Independent, at Clonmany WITH A berth in the final of the Ulster Junior Cup to play for, both teams were well up for this game. Redcastle are one of the better teams in the peninsula and are good in cups as we all know from their stellar FAI Junior Cup Run. Clonmany, however, have pedigree in this competition having won it two years ago. So a good game was on the cards.

The opening moments of the game were unsurprisingly tentative with both sides nervous of making silly mistakes. Clonmany came close to taking the lead at the quarter hour point when Brendan Devlin saw his header go just over. Jason Devlin came close soon afterwards with a free kick that went over. The home side kept the pressure on with a good passage of play that involved several players before a tremendous challenge from Martin Farren ended the move. Moments after this Joe Doherty forced a good save from Peter Devlin. Doherty was a bother to the Clonmany defence for the entire opening period and the home team had to watch him closely. In the last ten minutes of the first half Clonmany did well to keep the score at 0-0 as Redcastle were piling on the pressure. Paul Doherty had a shot well saved by Devlin and McIntyre hit wide after being set up well by Paul Doherty. Clonmany would have undoubtedly been the happier team at half time and whatever their management said to them at half time obviously worked as they produced what was arguably their best performance of the season.

With the second half only six minutes old the home side broke the deadlock with a goal from Philip Devlin. Paul McLaughlin sent a free kick into a crowd of bodies that the towering Clonmany centre back managed to get the last touch and gave the home side the lead. In fairness to Redcastle they fought valiantly after going one down and despite not scoring they pressured the home defence. Clonmany almost caught them on the break however when Brendan Devlin set up his namesake Jason who struck narrowly wide.

In the 78th minute the home side planted one foot in the final. A fine free flowing move by Clonmany saw great work from Steve Harkin who pulled the ball back in from the edge of the area to Jason Devlin who poked home. The lead was well deserved as Clonmany were playing terrifically well with centre backs Phil Pat Doherty and Philip Devlin successfully quelling the Redcastle frontline. A third goal came on 83 minutes when Brendan Devin scored for the home side, Paul McLaughlin sent a great ball into Devlin and the Clonmany front man managed to poke home to seal the tie. To their credit, Redcastle pulled a goal back minutes later when Joe Doherty received the ball on the edge of the area and connected brilliantly to make the score 3-1. Despite this the game belonged to Clonmany and the home side were unlucky not to increase their lead in the dying minutes when Brendan Devlin forced a great save from Crossan while under pressure from Martin Farren. But the game ended 3-1 to Clonmany setting up an interesting game with Lagan Harps who defeated St Catherine’s of Killybegs in the day’s other semi final. A tremendous result for Clonmany but a disastrous one for Redcastle. Away boss Bryan Bell admitted as much to this reporter after the match stating: “our so called big players didn’t perform today. They (Clonmany) wanted it more.”

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