This article is from page 106 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 106 JPG
A FAMOUS victory for Clare last night as they totally outclassed hot favourites Cork in the Cadbury Mun- ster U21 hurling semi-final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, setting up a final meet- ing with Tipperary on Wednesday Nelo)
This was a brilliant display by the Banner boys who no doubt will sav- iour this victory especially as the counties meet at senior level in a few days time. The home side tried eve- rything to turn the tide, but such was the solid performance from the visi- tors, there was very little they could do.
Clare were on top all over. Note- worthy though was the contribution of full forward Caimin Morey who finished with a very healthy 1-8 while outside him wearing the number 11 shirt Ger Arthur swung over three magnificent points in the second half (four in all). They pulled the strings too at midfield where Damien Browne and Nicky O’Connell stood out, and a very solid defensive per- formance yielded just 1-5 from the Rebels, that goal came right at the ler Tdee
A brilliant first half display by the Saffron and Blue resulted in an in- terval 1-9 t O-5 lead, and it was no more than they deserved. They were
literally on top in all sectors conse- quently it was a lacklustre Cork who had three county seniors on their side — Cathal Naughton, Patrick Cronin and Patrick Horgan. They only man- aged one point from play in the open-
ing 30 minutes, which came from corner forward Stephen Moylan on three minutes.
GUE Tees eben ore marcanlaeubetcmcle-DamLUD ESC ing ahead by three points after five minutes with full forward Morey fir-
ing over a pair of frees and a beauti- ful long-range effort from midfielder Browne. They increased this advan- tage to 0-6 to 0-3 before a splendid lengthy delivery from O’Connell out around the middle of the park was whipped to the net by Morey to put them comfortably ahead by five points with 10 minutes to go to the eee
Twice they denied Cork goal op- portunities when firstly goalkeeper Donal Tuohy came off his line and then Gary O’Connell stopped a blis- tering shot from Naughton. The visi- tors finished the half strongly with a trio of points from Arthur, Morey and Colin Ryan who had switched from the corner to full forward.
Significantly, Clare maintained that momentum for the new half. They gained valuable breathing space when a Horgan penalty was expertly saved by outstanding keeper Donal Tuohy. And when Eamon Glynn darted out of defence to find Arthur, you could sense something special was about to happen. The sides swapped points, but entering the final quarter, Clare had raced 1-15 to 0-9 in front.
O’Connell and James McInerney pushed on from the half back line, and some impressive shooting from Morey, John Conlon, Sean Collins and sub Conor Tierney ensuring there was no way back for Cork.
Clare were ahead now by more than double scores before Horgan finally got through for a late, late consola- tion goal.