Category: Sport

Rock Rovers 3 – Sporting Ennistymon 0 at North Clare Amenity Park, Lisdoonvarna

ROCK Rovers powered past the challenge of first division side Sporting Ennistymon to progress to the second round of the Clare Cup on Sunday.

First half goals from Eoin Glynn and Niall McNevin set Rock on the road to victory.

The premier league side squandered numerous chances to increase their lead after the break before substitute Marty McLoughlin volleyed home the third goal late on.

Alan Sexton missed a penalty in the closing stages for an under strength Ennistymon side who had other opportunities to make life uncomfortable for the visitors.

Alan Horan, who was one of the north Clare side better performers, almost capitalized from a defensive mix-up to score midway through the second half as Ennistymon committed more players to attack.

These sides met in last year’s competition with Rock winning a tight encounter on penalties.

Heavy showers of rain and sleet made playing conditions difficult for both teams but it was Rock who enjoyed the majority of possession in the early stages.

The midfield axis of Eoin Glynn and Ashley Glynn was the conduit for most of Rock’s brighter moments in the first half.

The first goal however arrived after a counter attack from Ennistymon’s best move of the half.

Daryl Eade made a piercing run through the middle before laying off to David Ryan. Ryan squared for Eoin Glynn who smashed the ball high to the net.

Rock’s second goal was also a product of good work in the right flank. Ashley Glynn’s strong run and pass teed up Niall McNevin who applied a neat finish from close range.

In the second half chances came and went for Eoin Glynn, McNevin and Stephen Hickey before McLoughlin’s well taken strike.

Francis Daniels was then penalized for hauling back Cathal McConigley for a penalty that Sexton drove over the bar. Rock play Bridge Celtic B in the second round.

Sporting Ennistymon
Abel Ennaoui, Micheal O’Dwyer, Robbie McInerney, Ciaran Flanagan, Mark Burke, Patrick O’Dwyer, Brian Hoolahan,Alan Horan,Alan Sexton, John McInerney, Theirry Bouton

Subs
Cathal McConigley, James McConigley, Padraig Flynn

Rock Rovers
Stephen Loftus, Michael Dinan, Francis Daniels, Shane Daniels, Ronan Judge, Dean Gardiner, Eoin Glynn,Ashley Glynn, Daryl Eade, David Ryan, Niall McNevin

Subs
Stephen Hickey for Ryan, BarryWoods for Dinan, Eric Murphy for Loftus, Marty McLoughlin for Eade

Man of the Match
Eoin Glynn (Rock Rovers) Referee David McCarthy

Tulla United 4 – Kilrush Rangers 1 at Tulla

AN EVENTFUL game to say the least as Sunday’s cup clash between Premier side Tulla United and Second Division Kilrush Rangers was a tie which saw five goals and red red cards as Tulla progressed to the next round.

Niall Whelan put Tulla ahead in the opening minutes after he capitalised on a corner delivery from Tommy McKeon.

They pushed on from here and controlled most of the possession but were unable to find another goal before the half.

Kilrush full back Eoin Fitzgerald then saw the first red of the day as he was dismissed right before half time which gave Tulla a commanding advantage in the second half.

It was Tulla that struck again with substitute Keith Lenihan hitting his first of two on the day. It looked as if 10 man Kilrush were in trouble but much like their first half opener Tulla were unable to build on this and it was Kilrush who scored next with Gearoid Lynch bringing the game back to just a one goal deficit.

The closing stages of the game brought a spell of chaos as Tulla scored a controversial goal deemed by Kilrush to be offside and after Martin Danagher let his feelings know to the referee he received a second yellow and the third and final red was again for Kilrush, issued to Kevin Larkin for a dangerous tackle late on.

Keith Lenihan then scored his second right before the end to put Tulla Utd through on a score line of 4-1.

Tulla Utd
Shane Collins, Padraic O’Malley, Niall Whelan, Denis Murphy, Darragh Corry,Tommy McKeon, Shane Mason, PaudgeVaughan, Gearoid O’Doherthy,Alan Brigdale, Mike McDermott.

Rineanna Rovers A 3 – Ruan United 2 (AET) at Rineanna

SECOND Division side Ruan gave a heroic performance against Premier side Rineanna but after losing the lead twice and being forced to extra time they were knocked out with a very late winner which ended their cup hopes for the year.

Ruan looked in control and went ahead after a Gavin Dinan free kick found the top corner just eight minutes in. Rineanna created very few chances early on until they headed in a free kick in the 32nd minute leaving it 1-1 at the break with Ruan still dominating.

The second half saw more of a competitive edge, but it was Ruan who struck once more in the 65th as Paul Dinan slotted the ball home and they swung the game back in their favor.

Rineanna began to put the pressure on as Ruan sat back on their lead. Then with a stroke of luck, a free kick from Niall Mills, intended as a cross, lobbed the Ruan ‘keeper and found the back of the net to put the game into extra-time.

Ruan then went in search of another but it was Rineanna who stole it with a goal right at the end as John Okuro found the net and with only three minutes remaining.

Ruan went all out for an equalising goal and had a great chance in the last minute but were denied and lost on a final scoreline of 3-2 after extra-time.

Despite an outstanding display from Johnathan Clohessey they were unable to topple the premier side and with good performances from Rineanna’s Enda Kelly, Sean O’Connor and John Okuro they now progress to the next round of the cup.

Kilkishen Celtic 1 – Manus Celtic A 1 (AET) Manus won 4-3 on penalties at Kilkishen

A JUICY TIE against first division promotion hopefuls Burren Utd is Manus Celtic’s reward for the slenderest of victories over Kilkishen Celtic on Sunday.

There is never much between the teams when they clash as can be seen from their 1-1 league draw earlier in the season and true to form, this encounter went all the way to penalties before substitute John Molloy squeezed the Clarecastle side through to the next round.

Kilkishen dominated the opening 20 minutes of the game and Manus can thank goalkeeper Jeff Healy for keeping them in the tie after two point blank saves.

However, Manus eventually found their feet and after Adrian McDonagh had two opportunities denied, he finally opened his Manus Celtic account in the 38th minute when put through by a combination of brothers Mikey and Stephen Geragthy.

Mattie Holmes should have equalised only seconds later but blazed over from close range but equally, Mikey Geragthy should have doubled Manus’ advantage only seconds after the restart when his shot rebounded off the post.

Similarly, a Mikey McDonagh lob was repelled for Manus as was Fer- gus Donovan’s point blank shot that was also saved by goalkeeper Healy.

However, with time running out, Kilkishen finally breached Manus’ goalline through Derek Canny who masterfully executed a freekick from the edge of the box into the corner of the net.

Extra-time drew a further stalemate but with the sides at three apiece, it was subsitute John Molloy who became the hero when he converted Manus’ final penalty to book their second round place.

Kilkishen Celtic
Damian O’Connell, Flan McMahon, James Hook, Derek Canny, Mattie Holmes, Shane McInerney, Steve Donnellan, Eoin Pewter, Fergus Donovan,Alan McInerney, Paul Hogan (Brian Culbert)

Manus Celtic A
Jeff Healy,Aidan McCarthy, Ian Considine, Kevin Clohessy, Barry Guinnane, SeanieTravers,AdamHealy (Tola Crowe), Stevie Geragthy,Adrian McDonagh (Mikey McDonagh), Mikey Geragthy (John Molloy), Pa Casey

ON Saturday evening medals were presented to the winning Corofin GAA teams in different grades in 2010. Following with the success of the camogie team, 2010 was a wonderful sporting year for Corofin.

THE CLARE U14 Ladies Football panel provided the half-time entertainment last Saturday in Miltown Malbay when they gave an exhibition of football at the men’s Senior League meeting between Clare and Kilkenny. With less than three weeks until their Munster Championship first round meeting away to Waterford, the girls have been putting in the time and effort, meeting twice weekly to work on fitness and skills. Training continues this Tuesday, February 15 in Kilrush GAA Grounds and all players are asked to be in the dressing rooms at 5:50pm sharp. The following players have been selected for the 2011 Clare U14 Ladies Football Panel.

Elaine Casey, Laura Chesser, Eve Copley, Aoibheann Malone, Aoife Keane, Grainne Nolan, Eva O’Dea, Emma Neylon (Banner Ladies); Blainead Sheedy (Burren Gaels); Chloe Normoyle, Gillian Finucane (Coolmeen); Nicole Downes, Aine Looney (Cooraclare); Nicole Golden (Doonbeg); Michaela Fitzpatrick, Sara Jane O’Connell, Aisling McMahon (Doorabarefield); Elana Bradley, Amy Hayes (Eire Og); Lauren Griffin, Shauna Hill (Fergus Rovers); Chloe Moloney (Kilmurry Ibrickane); Kate Coughlan, Rebecca Mahon, Ciara Coughlan (Kilmihil); Aoife Carraig, Kayla Crowley, Jessica Gilligan, Michelle Downes (Kilrush); Clionadh Egan (Liscannor); Megan Maguire, Ann Marie Hayes (Newmarket on Fergus); Ronya Baumann (Shannon Gaels); Amy Keane, Rachel Muldoon (West Clare Gaels), Danah King (Wolfe Tones).

MILTOWN Malbay GAA Grounds played host to a series of challenge games last Saturday between the Clare Ladies Football U16 and Minor panels.

As both teams prepare for their respective Munster A competitions against Cork and Kerry, (the Minors additionally have Tipperary in their group), it was clear both grades were eager to compete after four weeks of trials.

With some clever selection by Managers Kieran Harvey U16 and James Lafferty Minor both grades got an opportunity to display some very fast paced football over the three challenge games.

The well attended event showed the commitment and effort being poured into juvenile Ladies Football in Clare by players and mentors alike.

The Minors continue their training with a session in Quilty next Friday 18th February at 8pm.

The U16s will assemble again this Saturday, February 19, players will be notified of details by text, and they will then travel to Tipperary on February 26 to compete in a one day blitz against Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Galway in prepara tion for their opening Munster A Championship game against Cork on March 26.

The 2011 U16 panel will be selected after the blitz on the 26th February.

Clare 5-17 – Kilkenny 1-01 at Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown Malbay

WHERE there’s football there’s hope – that has to be the mission statement of Kilkenny teams whenever they take to the field for the big ball game, but such is life that being the whipping boys of the National League is their sad lot.

This fact of football life was never about to change in Miltown on Saturday afternoon as Clare got the disappointment of their opening round defeat out of their system with a facile 28-point win.

And, it was every bit as easy as the scoreline suggests, while the halftime cameo served up by the three Kilkenny subs that bothered to have a kick-around between themselves showing up the whole futility of this exercise.

They passed the ball between one another for ten minutes – on the ground, in the air with their heads. All soccer in other words – they might have been training for a Kilkenny Junior Soccer League game on Sunday morning.

By that stage Clare were home to the two league points, having built up an interval lead of 3-6 to 0-1. A goal inside a minute from full-forward Cathal O’Connor had them on their way and from there it was one-way traffic towards the dressing room end.

Kilkenny just rolled over as Clare scored at will for the rest of the half, even though they kicked seven wides. Indeed the opening goal was a portent of things to come when a mistake in the Kilkenny defence gifted the ball to Alan Clohessy, who then fed O’Connor before he blasted to the net.

O’Connor’s second bullet to the net came in the 19th minute to put Clare 2-3 to no score ahead, while the third on the stroke of half-time from Shane Brennan came after good work in the build-up from Gary Brennan and Alan Clohessy.

Graham Lawlor did land a point from a free in the 32nd minute, but it was Kilkenny’s only reprieve as Clare racked up plenty of point-taking practice in the half, with Alan Clohessy helping himself to three and Enda Lyons, Gary Brennan and John Hayes also hitting the mark.

There was much more to come in the second half even if Kilkenny scored a goal three minutes in when Michael Duggan toe-poked to the net past Joe Hayes after latching onto a long free from Graham Lawlor.

Alas, it was as good as it got for the hapless Kilkenny outfit. Hayes had absolutely nothing to contend with for the rest of the hour while down the other end Clare piled on the mis- ery, scoring 2-11 in the second half of what was a forgettable game of football.

Alan Clohessy, who was top-scorer with 1-7, goaled in the 47th minute after taking a pass from Adrian Cahill, while sub David O’Brien staked a claim for a starting berth with three good points from play in the half.

It was a procession, corner-back Michael O’Regan even raided up the field for a point while the rout was completed with Shane Brennan’s second goal in the 63rd minute and other late scores from Cathal O’Connor, Alan Clohessy and David O’Brien.

Mercifully, referee Richard Moloney blew his final whistle only 30 seconds into injury time to put this game out of its misery.

Clare
Joe Hayes (Lissycasey), Niall White (St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield), Lawrence Healy (Ennistymon), Martin McMahon (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Kevin Hartnett (Meelick) Shane McNeilus (Kildysart), John Hayes (Kilrush Shamrocks) (0-2), Gary Brennan (Clondegad) (0-1),Timmy Ryan (Kilmihil), Niall Browne (Two Mile House, Kildare), Michael Foran (O’Curry’s), Shane Brennan (Clondegad) (2-0), Enda Lyons (St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield) (0-1f), Cathal O’Connor (Coolmeen) (2-2),Alan Clohessy (Liscannor) (1-7, 6f).

Subs
Michael O’Regan (Éire Óg) (0-1) for White, David O’Brien (St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield) (0-3) for Foran [Half-Time],Aidrian Cahill (Celbridge, Kildare) for Browne [Half-Time], David O’Connor (St Brigid’s, Dublin) for Lyons [57 Mins], Conor Ryan (Cratloe) for Clohessy [64 Mins]

Kilkenny
JJ O’Sullivan, David Grennan, Richard O’Hara, John Sheehan, James Mackey, Michael Malone, John Cullinane, Emmet Vereker, Ciaran Foran, Thomas Kehoe, David Garvey, Paddy Raftice, David Prendergast, GrahamLawlor (0-1f), Sean Mooney. Subs Michael Duggan (1-0) for Malone [Half-Time), James Culleton for Lawlor [45 Mins], Michael Sanders for Prendergast [59 Mins], Stephen Connolly for Garvey [62 Mins],

Man of the Match
Cathal O’Connor (Coolmeen)

Referee
Richard Moloney (Limerick)

LIMERICK manager Donal O’Grady returned to competitive action on Sunday with a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders but left Ennis free of any burden after comprehensively putting Clare to the sword.

After a tumultuous 2010 that saw up to 20 first choice panelists at odds with then manager Justin McCarthy, the siege was lifted by O’Grady’s men on Sunday to record the county’s first competitive victory in 19 months but true to form, the Cork man wasn’t getting excited just yet.

“The performance was all we were interested in really because the two points are handy but it’s the start of a long campaign.

“I suppose really it just comes down to work-rate and there is an awful lot of credit due to the lads themselves, they worked very hard. We are only training since January 2 so I wasn’t sure where we were at.

“Now I’m not sure where Clare are at either because you don’t know what the attitude of your opponents are as Clare were short a couple of players there.

“So we are happy with the win because it takes the pressure off. Two points is important in the first match if you can and it comes down to work-rate and Jerry Wallis has done great work with them since we came in in January so you would have to be pleased with the performance.”

“We reckoned that this would be a very difficult game for us and we were looking for a performance and you couldn’t fault the lads because everybody worked very hard.

“We made a couple of substitutions because with Andrew O’Shaughnessy and Niall Moran, tiredness just hit them and we felt that we would inject some fresh legs so you couldn’t fault us on work-rate and the win is pleasing.”

Asked about the lift that the win will give to the county as a whole, again O’Grady continued to play down what is essentially the first game in what could potentially be a long season for Limerick.

“I suppose anytime you win a match, you come back into the dressing room and you go back for the post-match meal and there is a bit more of a buzz there and there is bit more of a lift there than if you lose so all these things are important and confidence is important.

“I don’t know where we are going to end up this year but we are just going to take one game at a time.

“It was pleasing to come up to Ennis today as it was a tough one to start with. How intent Clare were on winning this match I’m not quite sure but we are pleased with it anyway.”

“Everybody who was going out on the field today were aware of what job they had to do and it worked for us today, it may not work next Saturday night against Westmeath and it may not work for the following mathc but it worked today and we have to be thankful for that.”

IN a career that spanned more than three decades and included spells with the biggest clubs in England, John Giles has seen and done it all when it comes to football.

So the dramatic events of last week when English clubs splashed over € 200 million on transfer fees for new players, came as no surprise to the former Leeds and Manchester United great.

Recalling how in the 1950s Albert Quixall signed for Manchester United for a then record fee, Giles told The Clare People that big money has always been part and parcel of professional football.

He explained, “I go back to the time when I was playing with Manchester United and we had a lad in 1958, Albert Quixall, joined Manchester United for a record fee of £45,000. So it was always there. I believe even before my time there was a man called Tommy Lawton, a great player, an international. I think he was transferred for 30,000 and people thought this was it. It will never go higher than that.

Then we had the first million pound player with Trevor Francis and everybody thought, my god a million pounds. There’s nothing you can do about it really because if the clubs want to pay it, they want to pay it. Whether you think it’s too much or I think its too much, it doesn’t matter”.

The former Republic of Ireland player/manager was speaking in Ennis on Saturday at the Clare launch of the John Giles Foundation, ‘Walk of Dreams’.

Commenting on the multi-million euro deals that saw Fernando Torres trade Liverpool for Chelsea, and Andy Carroll swap Newcastle for the Anfield club, Giles said inflated transfer fees can sometimes weigh heavily on players’ minds.

He said, “I think it does tell on some players. I don’t know what Carroll is like. He looks quite a confident lad. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by anything, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing I don’t know.

But he could take it in his stride. But we’ve seen players before like Garry Birtles and Peter Davenport. He went from Forest to United and it was too much for him.

“It can happen. Certainly Old Trafford seem to affect players more than others”.

Gile also believes Ireland have a “reasonable” chance of qualifying for the 2012 European Championships. Citing the emergence of young talent like Seamus Coleman, Keith Fahy and Greg Cunningham, Giles reckons that captain and new West Ham United signing Robbie Keane remains an integral part of Giovanni Trapattoni’s team, despite an unsettled season to date.

H explained, “He’s got 48 goals, he scored on his debut for West Ham. I don’t think players lose that and I don’t think Robbie Keane has…. I don’t think the players do. What I found happens when I turned 30, was that if you had a bad number of games, it was down to your age. And then they are wondering if you are past it”.

Giles added, “You go beyond that then and you actually become ageless. Ryan Giggs is 37. Now I remember they were saying is he finished? It was the same as Paul Scholes. So what can they say now? Scholes is 35, 36. He can still play. Giggs is playing as well as ever. So you become ageless.”