This article is from page 71 of the 2011-06-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
AN INTRIGUING game for more than one reason on Saturday evening. Firstly, due to their intense rivalry that peaked in the 2006 and ‘07 county finals; the fact that Lissycasey legend Martin Daly is the current manager of Éire Óg while the reverse was true of Barry Keating while there was also the small matter of Éire Óg needing the victory to secure their semi-final place while Lissycasey required the points just to stay alive in the division after a disappointing start.
True to form, it turned out to be an inch tight contest that see-sawed in both directions before Lissycasey snatched it with a late brace of points.
The Townies had the better of the opening half’s exchanges to hold a 0-7 to 0-5 advantage but the second half livened up considerably with Lissycasey mounting a full recovery through a Martin Moran penalty. Éire Óg’s reply was also through the penalty spot from captain Stephen Hickey and it looked to have been enough to take all the points when holding a 1-11 to 1-10 lead with time almost up.
There was enough time to mount one final rally though and a late brace completed by Francis Hayes’ winner could yet be a pivotal score in Lissycasey’s season.
Lissycasey
Joe Hayes, Cyril Sheehan, Gerry Moran, Martin O’Connor, Cathal Hill, Michael Melican (0-1) Martin Moran (1-0) Enda Finnucane (0-1), Daniel Clohessy, OisinTalty, Francis Hayes (0-2) Alan Nagle (0-1), Paul Nagle (0-1) Niall Kelly (0-3) Derek McMahon (0-2)
Subs
Sean Hayes (0-1) for Talty, Fergal Talty for P. Nagle
Éire Óg
Eoin Slattery, Robbie Malone, Conor Healy, Michael O’Regan, Paul Madden, Dean Ryan, Nicky Hogan, Shane Daniels, Donie Lyne, Niall Daly, Stephen Hickey, Brian McMahon, Gary Flynn, Sean Crotty, David Monaghan
Subs
Danny Russell for McMahon, DonaghWalsh for Daly
Referee
Michael Fitzgerald (Ballyea)