This article is from page 55 of the 2009-05-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 55 JPG
The evolution of Clooney/Quin con- tinued on Friday evening, adding a new ruthless streak to their rapidly erowing arsenal to open the new campaign with a comprehensive vic- re ays
Learning from past mistakes has been a feature of Clooney/Quin’s de- velopment this year and with the ex- pected fire and brimstone from Smith O’Briens, who had lofty notions of their own this year, Clooney/Quin played this tie to perfection, soaking up the early pressure before gaining a decisive stranglehold on the game that they would never relinquish.
Granted, there was a large ele- ment of fortune to the two late first half goals that essentially turned this tie on it’s head and broke Smith O’Brien’s spirit but as Clooney/Quin learned the hard way last year, you make your own luck at this level and it’s just about grasping those op- portunities when they present them- selves.
All that was in sharp contrast to Smith O’Brien’s who seem to have learned very little from their two full seasons at the top level. The same old failings were evident and ship- ping their biggest defeat at this level couldn’t have come at a worse time for their confidence.
Peel back the skin of the thirteen
point winning margin and you will find that the game fundamentally hinged on the ten minute period before half-time. After a slow start, Clooney/Quin led by O-7 to 0-4 on the 20 minute mark but could have been pegged back when Shane O’Brien earned Smith O’Brien’s a penalty.
However, Liam Walsh’s 23rd minute effort was saved by a combination of Cillian Duggan and crossbar and while that setback wasn’t detrimen- tal, it was magnified soon afterwards as two injury time gifts of goals left them trailing by nine points at the usr e
They came in almost identical fash- ion, stemming from Cillian Duggan long frees, the first of which appeared to travel straight to the net while the latter got the deftest of flicks from Cathal Egan.
Half time couldn’t come soon enough for Smith O’Brien’s but if those goals signalled the beginning of the end, Martin Duggan’s 34th minute goal may as well have had the Grim Reaper operating the umpire’s green flag as it totally sucked the life out of the Killaloe side’s challenge. With only Seamus Gleeson, Liam Walsh and John Cusack willing to stand up, Smith O’Brien’s heads be- gan to drop and to compound mat- ters, they also found goalkeeper Ca- thal Hannon in defiant mood.
Clooney/Quin had no such lead- ership issues with Cillian Duggan, Enda Harrison, Fergal Lynch, and the unplayable Martin Duggan who had an impressive haul of 1-7 to his name, controlling matters.
It meant that they eased up to vic- tory, one which will give them a huge boost ahead of their long break until round three while on the flip side, nothing but a win against Corofin in round two will be good enough to save Smith O’Brien’s season.