This article is from page 75 of the 2009-04-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 75 JPG
A GOAL three minutes from time by Gearoid O’Brien proved the differ- ence between Kilrush and St Joseph’s and capped a thrilling afternoon of football on Saturday in Cooraclare.
Kilrush began like a dream, grab- bing the opening score and goal of the game after Cathal Carrig buried inside the opening minute.
They gained plenty of momentum from that and pushed on to stretch
the lead to seven points, scoring a second goal with barely five minutes on the clock.
But this didn’t halt the fight from St Joseph’s, who plugged away and be- gan to close the gap.
It would have happened faster only for a brilliant save from Mikey Shan- non in the Kilrush goal after Eoin Conroy blasted for the net.
Two minutes later, though, St Joseph’s did grab their first goal after Diarmuid Barron latched onto a long
dropping ball to steer to the net.
Shortly after Rory Brennan pointed to tie things up at 2-1 to 1-4.
With the game flowing nicely, St Joseph’s moved a step closer to win- ning after Ross McCarthy clinched their second goal, picking up a nice pass from David Conroy. Now, just before the break, St Joseph’s led for the first-time in the game.
But straight after the turn-around, Kilrush hit a serious purple patch and inside the first four minutes of the half, they had regained the lead after hitting 1-4: two points from O’Brien, one from John Kelliher and a goal from Conor Ellis.
They now led by four points, on a scoreline of 3-6 to 2-5, but it always felt like this one was going to go the distance.
And so it proved.
St Joseph’s, once more, showed great character to battle back into the game and with time ticking towards the hour mark, it looked like their second comeback was going to win WSO ENYA
It didn’t, though: O’Brien stepped up and rattled home to send Kilrush through after a game of huge tension ANIemorColraneonle