This article is from page 109 of the 2009-03-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 109 JPG
ROCK Rovers made the journey east to Mountshannon hoping to take a big step towards promotion to the top flight for next season. Going into the game they led the divisioin by three points from Shannon Olympic with a game in hand, but by the end they were left licking their wounds after Mountshannon gave them a real les- sons — in the process the east Clare side kept their own promotion hopes alive and are now poised to strike in a chasing pack behind the paceset- ters Rock and Olympic.
It was Mountshannon’s day from the word go — the local knowledge they have of their own field was proved far to much for a poor Rock side that were shorn of the services of their top scorer Stephen Hickey.
It took Mountshannon only ten minutes to make the breakthrough — Shane Daniels’ fell to Mounthshan- nnon striker Arthur Burzynski who beat Leonard Keane with a low shot first time to the corner.
Rock came more into the game as the half wore on, but a stone wall
Mountshannon defence led by the hard-tackling and ultra competitive Raymond Cahill totally nullified the visitors’ attack.
Matters rested at 1-0 at half-time, but five minutes after the resumption Mountshannon struck for the all-im- portant second goal. This time Rock were undone by a swift Mountshan- non counter attack. Mounthshannon right back Colm Collins worked ball infield and three passes later later, John O’Brien showed his class when curling in an effort from just outside Welomre Duets P
Rock were in dire straits, but threw themselves a lifeline a minute later. They stormed forward from the tip- off and a cross from the right was blocked out by the defence, but fell invitingly to midfielder Brian Fitz- patrick who found the net with a su- perb looping volley.
Rock were back in the ballgame but in the 65th minute Mountshan- non were back in control when a mix-up between Greg Howard and his keeper Leonard Keane allowed Tommy Gleeson through for an easy tap in goal.
Fifteen minutes later Mountshan- non closed out the game when Rock were punished for failing to deal with a corner and Michael Scanlan blasted home from close range.
Consolation did come in_ the 90th minute for Rock when Marty McLoughlin was fouled just inside the Mountshannon penalty area. Greg Howard converted the spot kick.
However, Shannon Olympic’s 7-2 win over Kildysart Celtic put the seal on Rock’s depressing day.