This article is from page 70 of the 2011-04-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG
Fermanagh 0-17 – Clare 0-09 at Brewster Park, Enniskillen
THERE was revolution in the air around Enniskillen on Sunday as Fermanagh played host to Clare in this Division 4 tie.
Fermanagh football was up in arms following the statement issued by 11 former members of John O’Neill’s squad who outlined their grievances as to where it has all gone wrong for the Erne county this season.
Good news for a Clare team not without their own problems this year thanks to that hat-trick of very disappointing defeats to Leitrim, Carlow and Roscommon that scuppered their chances of mounting a promotion bid.
Great news for Clare after the lightening start they made to this game, as forward talisman David Tubridy ran riot in the opening ten minutes when putting four points on the board as his side raced into a 0-4 to no score lead.
Fermanagh, in turmoil off the pitch thanks the ‘Gang of 11’, were in turmoil on it too as they reeled from this lightening Clare start that should have teed the Banner County up for back-to-back victories for the first time in this year’s campaign.
That it wasn’t to be for Clare is told in the eight points that separated the sides at the end – a turnaround that laid bare that fact that this was a somewhere between a resurrection on the part of Fermanagh and a total collapse on the part of Clare.
Or maybe it was both, because such was Clare’s implosion and Fermanagh’s revival that long before Tyrone referee Sean McNamee blew his final whistle, it was the visitors who looked like they were racked with problems.
When Fermanagh were held scoreless for the first 20 minutes, manager John O’Neill cut a lonely figure on the sideline, but everything seemed to change once Paul Ward opened the Ernesiders’ account with a 20 metre free.
Positional changes had been made in defence to try and curb David Tubridy, with centre-back Brian Mulroone moving over on the Doonbeg- man; left-half-forward Ryan Jones moved to midfield, while Daniel Kille was introduced at full-forward.
Fermanagh were a team transformed and Clare became disjointed at the back, surrendered the initiative at midfield and ran out of ideas up front.
The result was a flurry of points from Fermanagh with Daniel Kille (2) Ryan Jones, and John O’Flanagan to move 0-5 to 0-4 ahead before David Tubridy levelled matters in the 25th minute.
However, it was a brief respite for Clare as points before the break from Paul Ward and John O’Flanagan completed Fermanagh’s first half recovery as they edged 0-7 to 0-5 clear.
All wasn’t lost for Clare, but was within ten minutes of the restart as a brace of points each from Paul Ward and John O’Flanagan extended Fermanagh’s lead to six points. Gary Brennan did peg back a point, but further Fermanagh points from the impressive Daniel Kille, Terry O’Flanaghan and John O’Flanagan put them 0-14 to 0-6 ahead with 15 minutes remaining.
It was damage limitation stuff from there until the end – Clare did boost their tally with two more David Tubridy points to bring his tally to 07 for the hour, but further points by Daniel Kille, Terry O’Flanagan and Paul Ward left the home side comprehensive victors and consigned their to their fourth defeat of a desperately disappointing campaign.
Clare
Joe Hayes, Barry Duggan, Lawrence Healy, Martin McMahon, Kevin Hartnett, Gordon Kelly, Shane McNeilus, Cathal O’Connor, Gary Brennan, Conor Ryan, John Hayes, Shane Brennan (0-1), DavidTubridy (0-7, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45), Niall Browne, Alan Clohessy (0-1).
Subs
MarkTubridy for S Brennan (h-t), Ger Quinlan for Browne (h-t), David O’Connor for Ryan (68 mins).
Fermanagh
J McGrath, J Woods, B Owens, M Jones, CQuigley (0-1), B Mulrone, K Cosgrove, H Brady, MO’Brien,T O’Flanagan (0-2, 0-1 free), N Cassidy, R Jones (0-3, 0-2 frees), PWard (0-3), J O’Flanagan (0-3), S Quigley (0-1).
Subs
DKille (04) for Woods (10 mins), B Óg Maguire for Cassidy (20 mins), J O’Brien for Ward (60 mins), CO’Brien for DKille (65 mins).
Man of the Match
Daniel Kille (Fermanagh) Referee S McNamee (Tyrone).