This article is from page 67 of the 2011-06-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 67 JPG
Ennistymon 0-10 – Liscannor 0-08 at Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown Malbay
IT WAS A changing of the guard in some respects, not just between these former team-mates but in the overall championship itself. In a game as tight as a submarine door, you would have expected experts Liscannor to pull through just as they have done countless times before but aging legs were replaced by Ennistymon’s fresh ones in the crucial final quarter.
With an average age of 31 and two thirds of the team the wrong side of 30, Liscannor were unable to kick on from an 0-8 to 0-6 advantage held by the 45th minute and it was Ennistymon, backed by seven of their Under 21 winning side, who kicked the last four scores to take the honours and give themselves a tremendous boost heading into the ten week break.
It was all so different in the early stages as Liscannor surged into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead by the end of the opening quarter with Niall Considine at full-forward grabbing two of those scores. However, their grip was loosened by an Ennistymon rally that saw them hit four without reply in a six minute spell as Danny Rouine punished from frees while impressive wing-forwards Kevin Scales and Joe Dowling were on target from play. There was even a half chance of a goal for Robert McDonagh af- ter a Rouine free rebounded off the upright but he was smothered by Liscannor’s last line before Clohessy gained parity at the other end going into the interval. The scores were few but the en- tertainment and tension grew to a heightened level as the second half progressed. Ennistymon appeared to have kicked their hopes of victory away in the early stages with three successive wides while Liscannor were more accurate at the other end in grabbing three out of the first four points of the half by the turn of the final quarter to lead by 0-8 to 0-6, with Brian Considine’s curling effort from 35 metres the pick of the bunch. More often than not, Liscannor would have seen out the victory from that point but far from dropping their heads, Ennistymon refused to lie down and their hunger to succeed allied to their fresher legs saw them gain confidence from every passing score. A Danny Rouine free and a Joe Dowling left footed effort from 35 metres levelled up the game for the third time amidst a huge roar of approval from a packed new stand while Dowling turned provider for their third point in as many minutes as Ennistymon took the lead through Kevin Scales in the 50th minute. The expected backlash from Liscannor never materialised however as they got nowhere near to scoring their first championship goal in seven games. Instead, it was Ennistymon who strengthened their position further when Scales burst through the centre of the defence and was hauled down for Rouine to complete a perfect start to the championship and come out from under the shadow of their north Clare neighbours.