This article is from page 77 of the 2009-07-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 77 JPG
THE scoreline says it all really — this was as free-flowing a football game as one could hope to see as Clare stormed to a thrilling victory over the reigning All-Ireland champions thanks to a brilliant second half dis- ENE
Clare hit the net twice in the first half through Ailish Considine and Niamh O’Dea but still found them- Selves in arrears at the break, but there was no denying them on the turnover as goals by Aoife Murphy and Ailish Considine put them on the high road to an All-Ireland date against Donegal on August 2nd.
It was end-to-end stuff all through as the force was with each side at various intervals. Ailish Consid- ine’s eighth minute goal, which was quickly followed by points from Sa- rah Bohannon and Considine again gave Clare a three-point advantage by the 15th minute, but a Dublin pur- ple-patch that saw them hit 1-5 with- out reply in ten minutes turned this game on its head.
The goal came in the 22nd minute
when Rebecca Davey ran on to a long delivery and flicked the ball beyond Edel McMahon to the Clare net. It looked like giving Dublin a decisive half-time lead, but on the stroke of the interval Nimah O’Dea struck for a crucial goal that left them only a point adrift, it being 1-8 to 2-4 in Dublin’s favour.
It inspired Clare, but not before Sinead Cullen, the sister of Dublin senior star Bryan Cullen, tacked on the first point of the second half to edge her side two points ahead.
It was Clare’s second half goals that won the day — the first arrived eight minutes into the half when a high ball into the square from Sally Glynn led to consternation in the Dublin defence and allowed Aoife Murphy pounce for a goal.
Murphy added a point two minutes later to put Clare 3-5 to 1-9 ahead, before the Considine sisters from Kilmihil effectively put the game out of Dublin’s reach when hitting 1-3 in- side six minutes.
The goal came in the 39th minute when a penalty, awarded after the hugely effective Sarah Bohannon was
fouled in the area, was hammered to the net by Ailish Considine, while Eimear followed up with points in the 40th, 43rd and 45th minutes to put Clare 4-8 to 1-9 to the good.
Clare looked set to run out comfort- able winners but Dublin never said die and had the better of the scoring exchanges in the closing quarter, out- scoring Clare by 1-7 to 0-4 as they played catch up.
There were only three points be- tween them in the end, but Dublin’s goal came in injury time and just made the result more respectable from their point of view.
It puts Clare through to their first All-Ireland Minor A final in 18 years — they won back-to-back titles in 1990 and ’91 beat Dublin and Laois respectively.