This article is from page 63 of the 2011-02-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 63 JPG
Avenue United B 0 – Shannon Olympic A 3 at Lees Road
SHANNON OLYMPIC A extended their lead at the top of the 1st Division with an easy 3-0 victory over Avenue United B at Lees Road on Sunday. Played in wet and miserable conditions, the away side won the game with an excellent 1st half performance that produced three well-worked goals and a host of other chances.
Olympic got off to a flying start when Jimmy Houlihan calmly tapped home in the 3rd minute after some brilliant centre-forward play by Karl Scott. Goal number two came just three minutes later when Scott again created space for himself on the right and crossed for Alan Casey to finish from six yards.
At this stage it looked like a rout was on the cards as Olympic were producing chance after chance, having plenty of good opportunities to extent the lead, however a combination of poor finishing and good saves kept the lead at two.
The inevitable 3rd goal came in the 41st minute when a great ball from Scott picked out Jason Regan in the box who headed strongly past Calligan. On the stroke of halftime, Regan had a chance to double his tally but he shot straight at the ‘keeper from eight yards.
Avenue created the first real chance of the half when Chris Dobens shot straight at McGettrick in the Olympic goal. However, the away side continued to create chances in the second half but they were not able to add to their lead.
The game ended with the teams separated by the three first half goals. It must be noted that Avenue were missing a number of their youth players who had a great victory in the Munster Youths Cup the day before, but it was a very impressive display from the Olympic team who are beginning to look like a side capable of winning the league.
Best for Olympic on the day were; Karl Scott and centre-midfield pairing of Jason Regan and Ray Quigley. Olympic’s next game in the league is at home to Sporting Ennistymon next Sunday at 2.30pm.
Avenue United B
Cillian Culligan,Alan McNamara, Neil McCarthy,AnthonyWhite, Pa Sherlock, Barry Cusack, Jan Peak, Owen O’Loughlin, Chris Dobens, Mickey Byrnes, Ian Hassett
Subs
Gary George, Conor Mullen, LiamDeasy, Emre, Conor O’Brien, Richard O’Grady
Shannon Olympic A
Gary McGettrick, David Collins, Ian Hogan, James Fitzgerald, Karl Fogarty, Ray Quigley, Jason Regan, Eamonn O’Neill, Karl Scott, Jimmy Houlihan,Alan Casey.
Subs
Wayne Regan, Donncadh Kelly, Dave Kearns, Greg Keane, Richie Hanly. T hom ond R FC 27 St Senans R FC 10 THIS WEEK ST SENAN’S travelled to Liam Fitzgerald Park in Limerick to compete against Thomond RFC for the O’Donoghue Cup. The cup is competed for annually in memory of Joe O’Donoghue who was involved with both clubs for many years. Senan’s suffered an early set back when fly half Declan Collins was stretchered off with ligament damage. The weather conditions deter
mined that this would not be an open free flowing game as wind and rain made ball handling very difficult, so it was no surprise that the first 30 minutes saw both sides encamped in the middle of the pitch with very few clear cut scoring opportunities. This changed in Senans favour when on 32 minutes they won a penalty on the left wing, a good kick by Daragh McCoy opened the scoring for the visitors. Senans gained in confidence from this point and on 37 minutes their pack drove over the try line for Duane Horkin to claim the first try of the game. Once again a good con- fident kick by Daragh McCoy added the extra points to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.
With conditions not improving this would have been a good platform for Senans to take into half time, unfortunately a late lapse of concentration allowed Thomond to score a try in the last minute of the half to reduce Senans advantage to 5-10 at half time.
The second half saw the home side score an early try as Senans were slow to react to a long ball, the conversion attempt drifted wide leaving both sides on 10 points.
Thomond eventually got their noses ahead on 10 minutes with a penalty to give them a 13-10 lead. Both sides continued to struggle with the elements and the game became a war of attrition in the middle of the pitch until the home side broke free to score their third try to take a 20-10 lead. Senans had a few opportunities to reduce the deficit but each time the well formed Thomond defence managed to break down any threat.
Thomond finally secured victory on 37 minutes when they broke down yet another attacking move with a long low kick through an advancing Senans, Thomonds winger showed Senans players a clean pair of heels to score their fourth try and finish the game 27-10 victors.
St Senans Team
Jake Egan, Barry Murphy, Ger McNamara, Dylan Sonneman, Ronan O’Callaghan, , Declan Collins, Daragh McCoy, Ian Fitzgerald, Duane Horkin, Gary Crowe,Aidan O’Callaghan,Aaron Skerritt, Dave Lee, DavidWebb, Pa Ryan.
Replacements:,
Timmy Larkin, Rob Hegarty, Conor Moran, Paul O’Halloran, Mark Butler.