This article is from page 97 of the 2009-09-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 97 JPG
AFTER a very impressive perform- ance in this semi-final, Sixmilebri- dge progress to yet another Minor A hurling final. From the throw-in the men in yellow and blue always seemed to be the likely winners of this entertaining encounter.
It was Conor O’Gorman of Clare- castle who opened the scoring with
a well taken point. However, it did not take long for the “Bridge to re- spond. In the following five minutes two wonderful points from the excel- lent Alan Mulready, an effort from Timmy Crowe and a cracking goal by corner-forward Jamie Shanahan stole the lead from the Magpies and left the score at 1-3 to 0-1.
They never really looked back from this lightning start, even though with
eight minutes on the clock Clarecas- tle were given some hope when cen- tre forward Niall Quinn picked out Aaron Considine with a well judged pass. He then bypassed a number of Sixmulebridge defenders and blasted the ball into the net. Clarecastle cer- tainly were not preparing to give up without a fight.
For the next 20 minutes or so the ‘Bridge restored their dominance on
the scoreboard with four of their for- wards contributing to a seven point haul. Clarecastle managed to grab another three points and this left Sixmilebridge leading 1-10 to 1-4 at ne Vee abe tlon
Only for a number of missed frees and some poor long-range shooting this margin could have been far big- ger. The second-half continued as the first with Clarecastle unable to con-
tain the fast and tricky forwards of their opponents.
Between the 37th and 47th minute they secured another five scores and confirmed their hold on the game. Even though they did not score again until injury-time from a °65 taken by Jamie O’Gorman the end result was never really in question.
The final chance for Clarecastle came when they were awarded a 20m free. The crowd’s excitement increased as the Magpies’ netmind- er Jamie Coughlan ran up the field almost Davy Fitz-like, hoping that he could turn this placed ball into a much needed goal.
Unfortunately for him the ‘Bridge were never going to let the sliotar cross their line again and with this failed attempt Clarecastle’s partici- pation in the Minor A hurling Cham- pionship ended for 2009. Sixmileb- ridge march on after this eight-point victory and now only Kilmaley stand in their way of adding another title to their trophy cabinet.