This article is from page 126 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 126 JPG
CLARE will be hoping to secure their place in an All-Ireland Junior semi-final with a win against north- ern opposition on Sunday. Clare al- ready have a win under their belts and while it may not have been the prettiest of games, the result at the end of the day will be all that mat- ters. A second win on Sunday will see the girls secure qualification for the semi-final stages with an away game to Antrim remaining.
The squad has been battling with injuries recently and have not been helped with knocks picked up to Laura Linnane and Amy Colleran in the last seven days. Both are nurs- ing ankle injuries and are in a battle against time to be fit for the game on Sunday with both looking doubtful while Fiona Lafferty is definitely out. On the up side, Cathy Hally has returned to training after a lay off with hamstring problems and Aiveen O’Shea and Shona Enright will also be available for selection.
Management are also happy that the squad will be able to focus solely on this game for the weekend. It had been a cause of major concern for the management of the Junior and ul8 teams along with the county
board that up to eight girls who play U18 team were due to play Dublin
on both squads would be asked to play two games this weekend. The
in Dublin on Saturday with the girls
morning but fortunately Dublin who failed to field against Galway and
returning to face Down on Sunday Cork, have been pulled from the ul8
competition and so Clare are spared this inconvenience.
This is certainly good news as go- ing on last Wednesday evening’s per- formance for the U18 team, Steph- anie Moloney and Shona Enright who were not starters the last day against Offaly, will certainly be pushing for places on Sunday. Carina Rosein- grave scorer of 2-4 against Galway, Chloe Morey, Kate Lynch and Aine O’Brien are also in for inclusion. These players added in with captain Deirdre Murphy, Dee Corcoran who was player of the game the last day, Claire Commane, Aoife Ryan, Sha- ron McMahon, Denise Lynch and Siobhan Lafferty, Clare should be too strong for Down.
The girls rightly feel that they have a lot to prove after a poor performance against Offaly. In the corresponding fixture last year, Down also faced the Clare girls at home and while Down stayed with them for the first 20 min- utes, Clare were eventually able to pull away, recording a comfortable victory in the end. Down have al- ready been beaten by Antrim in this campaign, therefore Clare will be hoping that they will account for the visitors again on Sunday.