Milltown Sarsfields second Division 2 league outing of 2022 took place at Milltown on Sunday morning in the best day of the year with opposition provided by Naas. The vibes were good around the camp after two very strong training sessions but a number of withdrawals meant that's some last minute tweaks where necessary.
With the clocks going forward the lads were slow enough out of the blocks and Naas laid siege to the home teams goal for the first 15 minutes or so. However the excellent wing back pairing of Jayden Donoghue and captain Senan Clandillon broke up a lot of attacks, two wonderful catches by Jayden the highlight, while full back Dylan Buckley continued his good form clearing and blocking anything that came true. Either side, Jack sex and Thomas Croke got multiple last ditch tackles in to deny Naas scores. Further up the field, we were struggling to contain Naas excellent halfbacks and midfielders but slowly midfielders Kyle Carter and Robert Gleeson grew into the game. A speculative ball into the full forward line resulted in a great Eoghan delahunty goal against the run of play but Naas responded with a quick fire 2-2.
At this stage the Milltown Sarsfields forwards up their game and Charlie Lyons and Daniel Gorey began to break up the play, while Gary Malone in the corner put in several good tackles. Daithi DeLasa came strongly into the game from centre back, he pushed forward and a long range free went straight into the net. Growing in confidence, the lad started winning ball and a quick fire 1-1 from the lively Fionn Clandillon left the score at 3-1 to 2-2 at the break. The second half commenced with a sustained period of pressure and substitute Dara Fogarty added new impetus to the attack while Rory Woods maintained the defensive solidity.
At this stage Rob, Kyle, Daithi and Charlie were dominating the middle 3rd and Myles Darcy quiet in his unaccustomed full forward slot got better service. Milltown Sarsfields went on a third quarter drive which resulted in in a heavy scoring return of 3-3 adding majors with Myles adding three further points.
The goal from Myles was a contender for goal of the season with Ben Crampton accurate puck out finding Fionn who won a great ruck ball before off loading a handpass to Myles who finished hard to the net. Great team work all round.
Naas refused to be put away and they scored a further 1-1 and nearly went in for another which was stopped with magnificent full stretch save by Ben. Milltown Sarsfields closed out the win with Patrick Shannon and Ryan Crawford coming in to close it out.
Super performance by all. Best for Milltown Sarsfields on the day; Thomas Croke, Jayden Donoghue, Kyle Carter, Rob Gleeson, Eoghan Delehunty and Fionn Clandillion.
Clear to see that the training is paying off as we now have 2 games played unbeaten.
FULL TIME
Milltown Sarsfields 6-7
Naas 3-3

TEAM
Ben Crampton, Charlie Lyons, Daithi De Lasa (1-0), Daniel Gorey, Dara Fogarty, Dylan Buckley, Eoghan Delahunty (2-0), Fionn Clandillion (2-2), Gary Malone, Jack Sex, Jayden Donoghue, Kyle Carter, Myles D'Arcy (1-5), Patrick Shannon, Robert Gleeson, Rory Woods, Ryan Crawford, Senan Clandillon, Thomas Croke.