New management team watch Cloney slip to defeat

DONACLONEY kicked off the 2010/11 season with a home game against Armagh Blues.

They had hoped to get a good start as they welcomed a new joint manager Brian Gregson who has now teamed up with Gary Knox as together they hope to improve the fortunes of the local club.

There has been a number of new faces recruited to freshen up the playing squad, although unfortunately on Saturday a few pre-season injuries and holiday commitments left the Cloney slightly under-strength.

The Cloney were very slow out of the blocks and Armagh Blues were quick to take advantage of the home side’s early indecisiveness. In fact it turned out to be a first half from hell as Cloney players struggled to get a foothold on the game and couldn’t even string two passes together.

By the end of the half Cloney had not really threatened the Armagh goal and had conceded three poor goals. In fact, they locals were lucky only to have conceded three as it could easily have been five or six with the Blues striking the woodwork on a couple of occasions.

Some stern words at half-time along with a few personnel and positional changes saw the Cloney start to assert themselves.

Within 10 minutes they had pulled a goal back when Knox broke through from midfield to coolly slot past the onrushing keeper.

Lance Watson and Norman Robinson had shored up the backline and their searching balls to the ever willing Kyle Scott had now left the Blues defence rocking.

On the hour mark Robinson’s long ball caused confusion and new striker David Calvert calmly collected the ball and lobbed the advancing keeper. At this stage it was looking likely that the Cloney may get something from the game.

With 15 minutes remaining Knox again caused panic as he volleyed a Willie Hilary cutback only to be foiled by a great save from the home keeper, the Hilary stole in behind the backline only to fluff his finish.

The Cloney were made to rue their wayward shooting as The Blues broke away and converted a fourth goal with only 10 minutes on the clock. Cloney never really created any real clear cut chances only for a near own goal as the game petered out to the final whistle.

The Cloney were disappointed with the result, especially with the nature of the first half performance. However the second half showing definitely has shown signs of optimism for a sustained effort for the incoming season.