Month: March 2009

KILMALEY are back in the final for the second successive year after finally seeing off the challenge of Whitegate on Saturday. However, in what was a repeat of last year’s semi- final, Kilmaley never had it easy and indeed were four points down mid- way through the second half after Michael Dooley had goaled for the east Clare side.

That Kilmaley finally prevailed was down to the contribution of Daire Keane, who for the second consecutive game, was inspirational for his side and managed to notch up 2-6 over the hour. With White- gate having the aid of the breeze in the first half, it took a spectacular Keane goal to pull his side level at 1- 3 to 0-6 at the break and again when things were looking bleak for Kilma- ley in the second half, he was there

again to flick to the net after getting on the end of a sideline cut into the area. That goal pushed Kilmaley two points ahead and further points from Eoin O’Malley and Michael O’Neill cemented the win and earned them a place in this year’s decider.

CLARE’S impressive start to the year finally reaped the deserved re- wards on Sunday but they had to dig deep before finally claiming their first points of the campaign. Admi- rable displays against Tipperary and Kilkenny yielded only moral victo- ries but this time, their hard work and perseverance paid off with a confidence-boosting win ahead of their senior championship return.

Far from being comfortable though, Clare’s good work in build- ing up a five point advantage by the 49th minute was almost undone in the final moments but a combina- tion of stubborn defending and some inspired goalkeeping from Denise Lynch meant that Clare held on for the narrowest of victories.

With neither side picking up any points in their opening two games, both sides would have fancied their chances of taking all the points here and it was Dublin who started bet- ter with Sarah Ryan having the ball in Clare’s net as early as the second minute.

It took six minutes for Clare to fi- nally get off the mark when the lively Carina Roseingrave palmed a point but it was cancelled out almost im- mediately by Alison Maguire and despite playing into the conditions, Dublin appeared sharper.

Clare though, true to recent form, finally settled and holding their op- ponents scoreless for the next 22 minutes, they hit 1-3 without reply with Claire Commane grabbing the

goal and Shonagh Enright, Carina Roseingrave and Sharon O’Loughlin adding points. It could have been more only for Dublin goalkeeper Eimear Butler, who produced an ex- cellent save to deny Deirdre Murphy in the 16th minute as Clare led by 1-4

to 1-2 at the break.

GENK cicoms re) asrureUhaptiMss(omelu hie ing seat but on the restart, three wides in aS many minutes frustrated them and gave Dublin hope, espe- cially when Joeleen Hoary pointed for in the 32nd minute. In a see-saw

period, a brace of points from Sha- ron McMahon sandwiched another Hoary score and goalkeeper Butler also denied Carina Roseingrave be- fore Shonagh Enright pushed Clare three points clear with a free at the turn of the final quarter.

Debutant Rachel Costelloe did reply with a point but Clare got a signifi- cant shot in the arm when a defensive lapse saw Carina Roseingrave pick up the break and grab a goal and now five clear with only eleven minutes remaining, Clare looked to be head- ing for a comfortable victory.

Instead, Clare failed to register an- other score as Dublin hit them with everything in their armory for the remainder. In the 54th minute, Clare had to twice clear off the line after a Niamh Taylor long free was dropped into the square but the Dubs finally made the breakthrough when Anne Griffin offloaded to Alison Maguire who made no mistake with a shot to the Clare net.

Clare were beginning to creak for the first time and Amy Murphy al- most took full advantage but Den- ise Lynch stood up to the effort to maintain Clare’s slender two point lead. Unperturbed by that set-back, Dublin continued to lay siege on the Clare goal and it almost earned them a full reprieve when Alison Maguire was brought down for an injury time penalty but Ciara Lucey’s effort was saved for a “45. Lucey did point in the 63rd minute but time was against them and a thoroughly relieved Clare held on for the one point victory.

While there were no knock-out

places at stake, it was still a signifi- cant result as a third successive defeat could have been a real set-back for Bertie Sherlock’s side. However, hav- ing ground out a much needed win, Clare can now approach the champi- onship with optimism and won’t be overawed by the tough challenges of last year’s All-Ireland senior finalists Galway, Limerick and Wexford.

THREE Clare-based organisations claimed three of the top prizes at the National Glor na nGael awards in Donegal at the weekend.

The Ennis-based An Clar as Gaeilge was awarded third place at the ceremony in Gaoth Dobhair.

The Shannon-based Club na Sionna Irish language group won the Herit- age Council Award while local sta- tion Clare FM won the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland award for the local commercial radio station that best promoted Irish in its broadcast- ing schedule.

Speaking after the presenta- tion, Breandan MacFhionnghaile, Oifigeach Forbartha An Clar as Gaeilge Teo, which co-ordinates the competition in Ennis, said that the award was a reflection of the work that was being done to promote Irish as part of everyday life.

“The response from so many com- munity groups and statutory organi- sation has been so positive and this reflects in the success we have had in the national competition in recent years” he said. “It 1s a tribute to the hard work of the many groups that are affiliated to and support the En- nis Glor na nGael Committee, this is a true community award,’ he con- LiKe (ere

The award for An Clar as Gaeilge caps a busy month for the organisa- tion and comes two years after it won the overall Glor na nGael national AMEN KOE

Seachtain na Gaeilge, which was launched back on March 2, was ex- tended to the end of the month to take in the Féile na hInse prizewin- ners concert, which was held in Cois na hAbhna on Sunday night last.

Club na Sionna won a Heritage Council Award worth €1,500 in recognition of the committee’s work on place-names and its publication ‘Know Your Place’, which has been so popular that it is now on its third print run.

The awards were presented jointly by Liam O Maolmhichil and Liam O Cuinneagain, Cathaoirligh of Foras na Gaeilge and Udaras na Gaeltachta respectively.

Speaking at the event, Glor na nGael director, Lorcan Mac Gabhann said, “I want to congratulate Club na Sion- na on receiving their award tonight –

a great recognition for the committee and for Shannon.”

Paul Moriarty, Controller of Pro- grammes in Clare FM, said he was proud to accept the BCI Award on behalf of the radio station.

“All the staff, in both management and presentation, worked hard togeth- er to achieve this award and it shows how a co-ordinated approach can be so successful and this is something we will continue to develop within Clare FM,” he said.

FOR the second successive match, Cratloe held the upper hand in this local derby but they had to endure a real scare before finally collecting the Opening points of the season. With both clubs still involved in the Under 21 championship and county senior action dominating the weekend’s fixtures, selections were hampered but it was Sixmilebridge who missed their big guns most as Cratloe dom1- nated for the majority. From the out- set, Cratloe were hungry and sharp while the Bridge appeared sluggish and at times static when striking and that combination meant that Cratloe were never behind over the hour and at times looked all too comfortable.

However, after building up a 0-13 to O-08 advantage by the 40th minute, perhaps a grain of complacency crept in as a rejuvinated Sixmilebridge tacked over five unanswered points to draw level by the 55th minute. They couldn’t take full advantage though as Cratloe finally recovered to score the final three points and avoid a ma- jor slip-up.

The early season rustiness was ful- ly evident throughout the match, em- pitomised by the amount of needless and lazy frees given away on both

sides that rival marksmen Damien Browne and Stiofan Fitzpatrick gob- bled up with ease. However, aside from Fitzpatrick and occasionally Danny Morey, Sixmilebridge never really carried a threat up front and had too many passengers while Crat- loe had a strong launching pad from their half-back line and midfield and seemed to have more options in the final third. That was essentially the difference in the first half as Cratloe, despite facing into the breeze, took the game to the Bridge and had six different scorers in their 0-10 to O-7 half-time lead while all but one point from the Bridge came from Fitz- patrick’s placed balls.

Sixmilebridge made changes at the break, introducing John Reddan at centre-forward and pushing Fitz- patrick to full-forward and that part- nership would prove fruitful later in the game. However, it would get a lot worse before it would improve for the Bridge as two Browne °65’s and a point from Gearoid Ryan cancelled out Danny Morey opening point and gave the home side a O-13 to 0-8 cushion by the 40th minute.

Then out of nothing, the game be- gan to turn. An Adrian Chaplin pull was excellently blocked by goal- keeper Hayes, John Reddan began

to win vital possession around the centre and Stiofan Fitzpatrick looked increasingly threatening inside and it gave the Bridge momentum as the lead began to topple. Points from Fit-

Zpatrick (3), Danny Morey and sub- stitute Eoin Quinn restored parity by the 55th minute and all of a sudden, it was the Bridge who looked the more likely winners.

However, ringing the changes and finally coming to life once more, Cratloe hit back and it was Gearoid Ryan who eased the tension in injury time when he pointed over his shoul- der and that relief was manifested further when Damien Browne was presented with two easy frees to ce- ment the win and continue their new- found hold over their local rivals.

WITH their hopes of retaining their league title all but over, the cup now becomes the main priority for New- market Celtic. The ten times winners may not have been in the winners enclosure since 2000 but they eased their passage into the last eight on Sunday with a comfortable victory over Bridge Celtic B.

Off the back of two battling results against fellow title contenders Av- enue Utd and Lifford, and barring the shock of the tournament, New- market were always fancied to easily account for the third division side as they had already beaten Celtic’s first side in the previous round. However, it did given stand-in manager Paudie Cullinan the opportunity to test out some of his fringe players and they responded with an assured display.

Still, Bridge Celtic’s second string didn’t make it easy for their Premier Division opposition and while they never really looked like breaking the deadlock themselves, they did frus- trate Newmarket sufficiently in the first half. Had they held out until the break, it would have given them great confidence but a Keith Power goal just before half-time, finally settled Newmarket and from that point on, it was only damage limitation for the O’Briensbridge side.

Eased by that breakthrough goal, the floodgates opened for Newmar- ket in the second period with two Siullery headers and a second from

Power guiding them to a 4-0 advan- tage. Worse was to follow for Bridge Celtic when the impressive Sillery was taken down in the area and Sea- mus Considine converted the penalty and Newmarket’s Grand Slam Sun- day was completed when substitute Jimmy Houlihan grabbed the sixth.

With Avenue’s surprise exit to Shannon Olympic on Sunday, New- market are now installed amongst the favourites for this year’s Clare Cup along with Lifford and holders Rock Rovers. From here on in, it will come down to the luck of the Friday night’s draw as Newmarket look to secure some silverware out of the Tere) IF

BARON de Coubertin’s Olympic ideals of “Stronger, Faster, Higher” could well have been borrowed by the other Olympic on Sunday morn- ing — the Shannon version that is, as they sent shock waves around the county in dumping eight times cham- pions and competition favourites Av- enue United out of this year’s Clare Cup race.

“Everything clicked for us,” said manager Jason Stretton afterwards. “We put everything into it and it hap- pened for us,” added the former Clare Cup winner with Newtown.

Conversely, it didn’t happen for Avenue United as their roller coast- er form of the past month contin- ued over a depressing 90 minutes. Dumped out of the cup at the last 16 stage and facing an uphill battle to prevent Bunratty from claiming the league title, 1t could be another trophy-less year for the bluebloods of the Clare game.

Olympic, meanwhile, are now genuine contenders for the cup title, while they’re hot on the heels of cur- rent champions Rock Rovers in the promotion race out of Division 1.

This cup tie effectively turned seis- mically in Olympic’s favour in the first half — a chance missed at one end by Avenue and an amazing goal

down the other end by Olympic.

Opportunity knocked for the home side after 25 minutes when star at- tacker Mikey Mahony burst into the area — on another day Mahony would have applied a clinical finish, but on this day he was thwarted by Kieran McCarthy.

From Avenue’s point of view this miss was compounded 15 minutes later when Wayne Regan whipped a right footed inswinging corner from the left all the way into the top corner of the net beyond the flailing arms of Colin Smyth.

It was a hammer blow, but one Av-

enue looked like recovering from when they dominated the early ex- changes of the second half. Ten min- utes in Eamon O’Reilly was denied by the crossbar, while in the resulting scramble the ball was cleared off the line.

It was as close as Avenue came to

levelling things up — the Olympic defence in which Paul O’Connor and Jan Hogan were outstanding soaked up everything Avenue could throw at them before they broke out of de- fence and struck for the all-important second goal ten minutes from time.

With centre-forward James Fit- zgerald causing Avenue endless problems, a second goal was always likely, but in the end a mistake by Eamon O’Reilly let in Ray Quigley who skipped past a few defenders be- fore rolling the ball underneath Co- lin Smyth to book Olympic’s quarter- final place.

LIFFORD B march on after spring- ing a cup surprise against Mount- shannon Celtic on Sunday.

The Ennis side progressed to the quarter finals thanks to two assists from goalkeeper Joe Burke and two razor sharp finishes from Adrian McDonagh.

Admittedly, Lifford were helped along the way by some very careless defending from Mountshannon.

Having been the superior side throughout the second half, Lifford still hadn’t found a way through when their fortunes turned in un-ex- pected fashion.

Lifford goalkeeper Joe Burke launched a long kick out at the Mounthshanon back four in the 77th minute.

His opposite number, Christopher Jones, rushed out but failed to hold the ball. Lifford’s Adrian McDonagh drilled home from a tight angle to give his side the lead.

Six minutes later, Lifford had one foot in the quarterfinals. The second goal was almost a carbon copy of the first with McDonagh again latching onto Burke’s goal-kick to lift the ball into the net.

Mountshannon will be sick at be- ing knocked out in such elementary fashion. Both goals were prevent- able. But take nothing away from McDonagh. Both strikes were well executed and indicative of Lifford’s

Superior cutting edge upfront. The roots of Lifford’s victory are prob- ably to be found in the decision at half time to switch formation from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2.

First division Mounthshannon had given their second division oppo- nents a bit of run around in midfield in the first half. In response, Lifford manager Lenny Franks teamed Pa Mannion, Darren Daly and Adrian Walsh in the centre of the park with

instructions to shut down Mount- shannon’s passing game.

The move worked a treat. Lifford saw more of the ball and gradually took a grip on the game.

Mountshannon, even with Cathal and John Moloney working like de- mons in midfield, rarely troubled Lifford’s well-organised defence.

The east Clare side might reflect that they should have done better with their earlier chances. 18 minutes

had elapsed when Burke got down smartly to tip away Arthur Burzyn- ski’s low drive.

Burzynski flashed a half volley just over the cross bar soon after as Mountshannon raised the tempo. Lifford’s best chance of the half ar- rived when Francis Franks teed up Stephen McGuane who squeezed a shot away from five yards that was held by Jones. Q-0 at half time and it was Lifford who seized the initia-

tive thereafter. McGuane lifted over from a tight angle in the 48th minute before Darren Daly’s drive from 20 yards trailed just wide.

The home side were clearly on top and should have taken the lead in the 57th minute when McDonagh headed over from Eoghan Judge’s cross.

Burzynski made Burke work with a curling shot soon after. That was as good it got for Mounthshannon.

Minutes later Burke and McDon- agh teamed up to give Lifford the lead before the duo combined again to rubberstamp Lifford’s place in the quarter-finals and who knows, maybe a crack against their clubmates from Lifford A.

THIS was a must win for both teams and for very different reasons. Lif- ford, on the back of a disappointing loss to Newmarket on St Patrick’s Day, had to win to stay in with any kind of chance at league honours. The Newmarket defeat meant they missed on the opportunity to close the gap on leaders Bunratty and a successive defeat would almost cer- tainly have dashed their title hopes.

Moher, on the other hand, are bat- tling the long arm of relegation and needed to get something from the game to ensure they stayed in touch at the bottom of the table.

In the end, the game went accord- ing to league standings but it came with a scare for Lifford as well. Twice Moher lifted their game to reel in Lifford but eventually, Lifford had enough class and composure to see them through to securing that much needed victory.

In the early stages, it seemed as though Lifford could run away with the game as they took control of the game and on five minutes they were rewarded for their hard work when Ryan Boyle was on target.

Moher didn’t he down though and Johnny Daly popped up to direct a free kick to the net with a fine header that equalised proceedings. It an ac- tion packed first half, Lifford once more pressed forward and Roberto put them back in front after a neat dribble from the edge of the box saw him drive the ball low and accurately into the corner of the Moher goal.

But the away side still weren’t finished and just before the break, Shane Keane headed home Moher’s second goal to leave the sides locked at 2-2 at the break.

Just when it looked like Lifford could become frustrated with the lack of a breakthrough, David Mc- Carthy popped up with a superb strike. David McCarthy latched onto a cleared header and volleyed to the top corner from the edge of the box. From there, Lifford dominated and took the points to ensure they could still have a say in this year’s league.

CONNOLLY Celtic became the lat- est side to fall prey to the goal scor- ing talents of Rock Rovers hitman Stephen Hickey on Sunday.

Hickey scored a hat-trick to secure a win that puts Rock three points clear at the top of division one.

Hickey struck midway through the first half and twice after half time to kill off the challenge of a spirited Connolly side.

Brendan Dillon scored a late con- solation goal for bottom of the table Connolly who dominated for long stretches of the second half.

Indeed Celtic squandered a glori- ous opportunity to tie the game early in the second half.

Rock, who were far from their best, were thankful to Hickey’s predatory instincts close to goal.

The striker had already seen one

towering header rebound of the foot the post before he gave Rock the lead.

Connolly will be disappointed with the manner in which they conceded the goal. The away side were award- ed a free kick from a promising posi- tion on the right.

However the ball was cleared swift- ly to Hickey who broke clear of an under-manned Connolly defence to score.

Connolly caused plenty of prob- lems for the Rock defence early in the second half but were desperately unfortunate not to score.

Rock, with David Considine a steadying prescence in midfield, sur- vived and doubled their advantage in the 65th minute.

Brian Fitzpatrick picked out Hickey with a great pass, and, as before, he buried to the back of the net.

The goal took the wind out of Con-

nolly and minutes later the visitors fell further behind. This time Dean Gardiner did the spadework, digging out a byline cross that Hickey tapped home from close range.

Dillon scored a deserved goal late on when he created a yard on the edge of the area and found the net with a low drive.

The future may not look too grim for Connolly if they can play with the same attitude for the remainder of the season. Rock, meanwhile, will hope Hickey keeps doing what he does best.

Clare’s builders ‘underemployed’