This article is from page 112 of the 2009-03-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 112 JPG
ARGUABLY the most valuable three points of the season for league lead- ers Bunratty, who got back on track in the race for their first Premier D1- vision title in eight years. Earlier in the campaign when they were flying high at the top and not really threat- ened by the chasing pack, Bunratty’s confidence allowed them to carve out comfortable victories. However, a re- cent slide in which they only claimed one point out of a possible six had made them jittery, especially since one of those games was a 3-2 defeat to main title rivals Avenue Utd. The Ennis side had their own setback by losing to Moher Celtic a week later so Bunratty needed a win here to steady the ship and send out a mes- sage of intent.
Bridge Utd craved the three points just as much at the other end to give them some breathing space in their fight to avoid relegation and therefore a scrappy battle ensued, much like their last meeting at the beginning of January. The conditions were equally as bad as that 1-O victory to Bunratty in Sixmilebridge two months previ- ous, with a whole spectrum of weath-
er spells from sunshine to hail.
Considering all these factors, it was never going to be a classic as oppor- tunities on goal were few and far be- tween. In saying that, both sides hit the crossbar in the opening period with Bunratty’s Peter Ballough miss- ing an open goal while a opportun- istic chip from Bridge’s Derek Fahy eluded goalkeeper Gary McGettrick but not the woodwork.
Had either of those chances gone in, it could have been a different game but instead, both sides plugged away without making much headway in the final third. The home side always looked the more likely to break the deadlock though and in keeping with the game when it did finally arrive, it had to come from a set-piece. Time was ticking away for Bunratty until Peter Ballough’s corner was expertly headed to the net by Shane O’Connor in the 72nd minute. From that point on, it was really a game of cat and mouse but substitute Chris Griffin could have cemented victory long before the final whistle when put through one-on-one with Paul Tuohy but he failed to score. As it turned out, Bunratty didn’t need a second goal as they clung on for victory but
even though, they are eight points clear with five games to go, the title race is far from settled yet. Joint sec- ond place sides Avenue and Lifford both have games in hand, with Ave- nue able to leap-frog Bunratty if they win all three. This weekend’s game will tell a lot but Avenue know from experience that it’s better to have the points on the board than have a sur- plus amount of games-in-hand.