This article is from page 90 of the 2009-09-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 90 JPG
REFEREE Rory Hickey was in the car park ahead of most of the sup- porters in Quilty last Saturday – gear bag in hand and ready for the quick escape.
Such was the level of anger at the final whistle, with Cooraclare grab- bing a controversial – if well deserved – equaliser five minutes into injury time, that the Eire Og man thought discretion to be the better part of val- our and so he made a quick departure from Quilty.
In truth however, it’s hard to under- stand what either side had to com- plain about.
Doonbeg and Cooraclare had served up a thrilling 60 minutes of football – filled with commitment, tension and no little amount of skill – when two injury time decisions left the large crowd exhilarated, and no doubt counting down the days until the replay.
The controversy, if you want to call it that, began in the 60th minute with the sides deadlocked. A high specula- tive ball from Kevin Nugent was lost by the Cooraclare keeper Joe Killeen and wound up in the back of the net.
Pandemonium erupted in the stands as the Magpies took the lead for the first time since the seventh minute as the Cooraclare faithful cried foul and square-ball.
Hickey consulted with both lines- men before rightly awarding the goal.
Gasps abounded, but the biggest drama was yet to come.
In the fifth minute of injury time Co- oraclare substitute Declan O’ Looney lofted a free kick that landed menac- ingly in the Doonbeg area sending bodies from both sides flying in all directions.
In the disarray that followed, Doon- beg stalwart Padraig Gallagher came away with the ball and a whistle from
the referee appeared to bring the match to an end.
The celebration in the stand was Short lived however, as it soon be- came apparent that the whistle was for a foul, with the umpire deciding that Gallagher had picked the ball off the ground, and not the final whistle.
Mark Tubridy showed great nerve to goal the spot-kick – sparking relief for Cooraclare and anger from a sec- tion of the Doonbeg players.
It had been a hot-blooded but fair encounter, with no quarter asked or given, and it’s easy to understand some of the frustration at the final
whistle. But, as one of the few neutral spectators in Quilty on Saturday, this reporter can say that this was a great game and, by and large, a fair result.
Cooraclare were in a different class for the first 40 minutes – sti- fling Doonbeg with their speed and relentless running – and they were good value for their 1-6 to 0-4 lead. Doonbeg had raced into an early lead with points from Jamie Whelan and David Tubridy.
But Cooraclare were proving much more mobile around the field and began to make that pay on the scoreboard. Points from Don Garry,
Hughie Donnelly and Cathal Lillis followed with Sean Maguire’s well taken goal giving them a healthy erYee
Colm Dillon and Brian Egan point- ed late in the first half to keep the Magpies in touch but Cooraclare took up where they left off after the break with scores from Andrew O’Neill, Mark Tubridy and Sean Maguire.
The half-time introduction of Frank O’Dea into the Doonbeg midfield was starting to pay dividends. The Magpies’ talisman rallied the troops and scores followed from David Tu- bridy (2), Enda Doyle Brian Dillon
and O’Dea himself to level the match and set up the grandstand, injury time finale.
What a finale it was.