Clondalkin firsts played their first ever home game under lights at Gordan Park on Wednesday night, on a breezy but mild December evening in front a big home crowd. With both their last two league clashes cancelled at short notice due to the recent weather, they started this refixture like a frustrated side, with massive collisions across the defence line, none more so than Derek Glennon and Sean Brennan. Captain Brian Doyle elected to back his troops and play into a stiff breeze for the opening 40 minutes. This starved them of possession but not of their workrate as they continued to force errors from DLSP. It was from one of these errors that Clondalkin broke the deadlock, with Colum Quinn first to react to a spilled ball by his opposite number and the ex-Shannon star raced clear. Chris Jebb added the simplest of conversions.
This stirred DLSP and their possession and territory paid dividends as they battered the clondalkin line with tight phases. Eventually this pressure told and they dotted down near the Clondalkin posts to level the game. Clondalkin were not to be rattled however and their attitude and defensive effort continued to make force DLSP play mostly in their own patch for the remainder of the half. In fact it was Clondalkin who came closest to scoring again, with Chris Jebb taking on a 50m effort into the stiff breeze. The full back more than had the distance too, but that was just off with the radar. Its been a tough month for Jebb, who has made 10 trips to Dundrum shopping Centre in the last month. He says hes nearly there with the shopping, 7 more to buy and 22 to wrap.
Buoyed by their first half efforts, clondalkin seemed the happier team to be turning level at half time, not as happy as the onlooking committee members, who had been worried about how the game would look under the new lights. Tom Duffy had this to say when asked about those concerns “Yes, weve had a few games go off without a hitch but its always a worry, would there be enough light? We knew it was going to be easy, we knew Sean Dunne and Derek Murtagh were unavailable, but it was a relief to see so many bald heads come through the gate to give us that extra bit of illumination we probably needed. The doc and Kevin Laide were guaranteed, Giff was 50:50 but made it in the end, but Andy Dixon turning up was something nobody could predict. We were even able to use his small head as a torch to get a football out of a tree, so it was great to see him.
Clondalkin started the second half in much the same fashion as the first. A high workrate all around, was best exemplified by Maynooth graduates and proud culchies Neil Finley and the king of clonmel, John Walshe who were everywhere in the backrow. Once again this pressure led to DLSP errors, with their first centre operating in little space, he rushed a pass that Matt Stapleton picked off and raced home in his new boots that hes slept in every night for a week. Jebb added a touchline conversion and Clondalkin lead again by 7 points. Further pressure by Clondalkin lead to firstly a yellow card and secondly 3 more points from the Jebb boot. Frustration followed as Clondalkin went in search of the score to push the game beyond DLSP. They were rewarded with a shot at goal and both a 5 metre scrum and lineout, however good defence from the visitors and mistakes by Clondalkin left the scoreboard at 17-7. John Bagnall turned to his bench, and unleashed underage graduates Gar Black and Aaron Donnelly for his first team debut. This extra energy finally helped Clondalkin break the DLSP wall, with Colum Quinn excellently putting width on the play to find Barry Mulloy who’s quick handling, allowed Simon Cobra King slither past the full back to give the home side a match winning lead at 24-7. With 2 minutes remaining Clondalkin began taking chances in order to try get the all-important 4th try. Chris Jebb countered from his own 22 and raced well into the DLSP half, recently crowned first team player of the year Niall Nolan, ran an excellent support line as he had done all night, but with pressure from both the DLSP full back and Andy Dixon glare in close proximity, the pass didn’t go to hand and the game was done.
John Bagnall was quick to praise his side afterwards after a difficult few weeks. “the intensity at training has never dropped and the lads attitude has never changed. Bagnall also had kind words for two of his believers “Eoin Delaney was excellent tonight, he’s represents what this club is about, hes worked his socks off this season and again tonight. His team mates recognise that.” But the highest praise was reserved for Cux, “he is a senior part of this squad, I thought he was excellent with the ref and he seemed to be running all night from goal line to goal line. we’ll definitely consider using him for touch judge in future”.
Clondalkin firsts go into their Christmas break now, with lots to look forward to. The Hosie Cup final, a refixture against Monkstown, their remaining league clashes and a towns cup campaign all await in the new year.
(with thanks to our special guest correspondent)
