John O Reilly stretches to get the ball as Adam Moore looks on
Winners of the Milltownpass Frank Moran Cup. From l/r: Jordan Egan, Frank Moran, James Mahedy
Shane Gleeson races towards the goal
Stephen Treacy feels the full force of this tackle
back up because one defeat could cost you promotion. You have to win all your games to be sure of promotion.” Under the management of former county star Jim Whelehan and selectors Joe Loran, David Maguire and Dessie Gorman, Milltownpass secured their only win of last year’s championship against Garrycastle in their opening game at Rosemount. The black and whites recovered from a disastrous start, which saw them trail by 0-1 to 1-3 after 22 minutes, to win by 1-8 to 1-6. They had reduced the arrears to 04 to 1-3 by half-time before edging ahead for the first time thanks to a Noel O’Reilly goal nine minutes after the restart. Paul Brady soloed forward to make it 1-6 to 1-4 before the Garrycastle second string levelled through scores from Paul Mulvihill and Robbie Shine. But the ‘Pass weren’t to be denied as late points from Kevin Reid (free) and Paul O’Reilly handed them a precious victory. “It was a great win considering the poor start we had and that Garrycastle were at full strength. If we had played them later in the championship, they wouldn’t have been as strong because they would have lost players to their senior team,” explains the centre back, who featured at midfield on a number of
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occasions last season. Milltownpass crashed to the first of three defeats when they surrendered a five-point lead to Ballynacargy in their second outing at Shandonagh. With Andy Devine in fine scoring form, Milltownpass dominated the first half to lead by double-scores, 08 to 0-4, at the break. Indeed, they could have been out of sight if the impish corner forward’s thunderous shot just before half-time had not come back off Michael Penrose’s crossbar. When Fintan O’Reilly had his jersey pulled and Devine slotted over the resultant free immediately after the restart to put five points between the teams, it was hard to see a way back for Ballynacargy, but making the most of their wind advantage, they turned the game on its head by scoring 1-7 without reply between the 34th and 58th minutes to run out 1-11 to 0-11 winners. Jim Whelehan’s charges suffered an agonising 1-7 to 0-11 defeat to Tubberclair in round three at Cusack Park. Seamus Faulkner’s scrambled 26th minute goal left the ‘Pass just a point adrift, 1-2 to 0-6, at the interval. By the midway stage of the second half, they had edged into a 1-6 to 0-8 lead thanks to three unanswered points from Noel O’Reilly, Fintan O’Reilly and Andy Devine, but a Tubberclair team who had been