This article is from page 113 of the 2009-02-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 113 JPG
WITH a little over a quarter of the game elapsed, the task for Clare was beginning to become obvious. The trip to Emyvale to face one of the standard bearers of the game was an obvious step up in class for Clare and playing a simple and effective game, Monaghan had run through the visitors for a couple of well crafted scores.
The most crucial came after 17 min- utes when Therese McNally latched onto a breaking ball close to goal.
She drifted in from the left wing and once in possession, there was only one outcome. Goal. The thing was, this was Monaghan’s second goal of the game and it pushed them into an eight point lead.
It wasn’t as though Monaghan had things all their own way because Clare, after taking five minutes to settle, had begun to win some pos- session around the middle. The thing was, they were finding it more diffi- cult to come by scores.
Aine Kelly was working hard and winning ball and looked dangerous but after 20 minutes, she was with- drawn with injury. It wasn’t the only blow to Clare and by the end of the opening half, they were also with- out Grace Lynch and Aifric O’ Neill, through injury — all within the space of three minutes.
At the Monaghan end of the field, they simply ploughed on and contin- ued to heap pressure on Clare. Ni- amh Kindlon and Edel Byrne were causing particular problems, an ele- ment that was flagged in the open- ing five minutes, at which stage both had linked up impressively. By then, Kindlon had opened the Monaghan account with three scores, a well tak- en point in the opening seconds of the game, a close range free shortly after and a goal in the fifth minute.
Already, that difficult task for Clare had become all the more demanding. But they didn’t exactly back off the challenge and continued to attempt to claw back the growing deficit but against a tenacious defence and a competent midfield, Clare began to run down one way lanes and by the time the break had come, they were 3-4 to O-1 in arrears.
That third Monaghan goal came
two minutes before half-time when a Kindlon attempt at a point came back off the posts and the dropping ball fell into the hands of McNally and she had the task of easily slotting the ball into an empty net for her second
goal of the game.
That dozen point lead at the break came despite some decent defending from Clare, including three qual- ity blocks that prevented a trio of scores.
Afterwards, Clare almost pulled that lead back to nine when Eimear Considine hit the post with a shot from 20 yards out. That effort even- tually resulted in a Clare free when Niamh Keane was fouled, with the
free converted by Majella Griffin.
If this looked like some respite for Clare, it didn’t turn out that way. Monaghan continued to run hard at Clare through the middle of the field and sixty seconds later, Kendlon and Aoife McAnaspie had extended the Monaghan lead.
It could have been more when Ni- amh Kindlon and Edel Byrne linked up once more, but Byrne’s shot was brilliantly saved by Denise Walsh in the Clare goal.
Midway through the second half Clare managed a goal themselves when Majella Griffin, now playing at full-forward, ghosted inside the full-back line and picked up a long pass from Considine. In between the Monaghan goal effort and the Clare green flag, the home side had man- aged to rack up four points to safe- eAut-Nue Ostomy ene
With the writing on the wall, things fizzled out during the last quarter and deservedly, Monaghan eased to victory.
For Clare, the true task of top flight football became more vivid but all things considered, this is almost as tough as it gets.