This article is from page 99 of the 2009-04-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 99 JPG
WHEN Richard Moloney threw the ball in to start what was his first sen- ior inter-county fixture there were only 43 customers who had paid their way into Cusack Park — that was a commentary on the level of interest in this tie and the current plight of senior football in the county.
The stay away supporters and those present knew this was going to be a nothing game — a final day away for the exiles, a day for Clare to hoover up two National League points and end what has been a depressing cam- paign on a winning note.
That about sums up what happened — apart from an early spurt from Lon- don when a fourth minute goal from Enda Gallagher gave them 1-1 to O-1 lead this was a one-sided miss-match as Clare strolled to a facile win.
Then manner in which Clare hit back after Gallagher’s goal was a telling portent of things to come — straight from the kick-off they worked the ball down the field and a slick move in the final phase of the field involving Enda Coughlan, Michael O’Shea and David Tubridy yielded a goal within 35 seconds of London’s shock opener.
Tubridy slammed the ball to the empty net on his way to a top-scor- ing tally of 1-5 as Clare ran riot for the rest of the game. Indeed, but for some very wayward shooting which contributed to 13 wides over the 70 minutes the gap would have been much bigger than the 20 points that separated them at the end.
They’d stretched it to seven points by half-time — points by David Tubri- dy (4), Enda Coughlan and Michael O’Shea had them 1-7 to I-1 ahead by the 20 minute mark before an Enda Coughlan goal on 23 minutes and points by Michael O’Shea and Tim-
my Ryan brought their tally for the half to 2-9.
London did rally towards half-time thanks to three Kevin Downes points to raise their total to 1-5, but any hope that the revival would continue after the break was quickly quashed by an avalanche of Clare points.
Timmy Ryan, David Russell, Enda Coughlan and Liam Markham had points within five minutes of the re- start as the game degenerated into nothing other than a _ slow-paced training game a panel of players might have after a three-hour physi- cal session.
London were dreadful, so much so that it was hard to credit that they had beaten Waterford earlier in the cam- paign. They only managed one point in the half, an injury time effort from Kevin Downes.
Clare, meanwhile, racked up 1-11 in the half. The flurry of points at
the start of the half was taken on by substitute Cathal O’Connor who grabbed a brace by the 44th minute, while Sean Collins finally got his eye in when knocking over two by the 56th minute.
By this stage London were offer- ing no resistance and were finally put out of their misery by Richard Molo- ney’s final whistle — however, before it came Clare notched up a further 1- 6 in the final ten minutes.
Enda Coughlan grabbed four points, Liam Markham and David Tubridy got the others while Gary Brennan goal with virtually the last kick of the game.