This article is from page 69 of the 2011-03-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
Clare 5-10 – London 0-4 at Cusack Park, Ennis
THE fact that there were only 16 paying customers to Clare GAA headquarters on this bitterly cold Saturday afternoon told its own story.
Told of the apathy around the fixture, something that certainly seeped through to the Clare players in a forgettable first half before they opened their shoulders on the turnover and pummelled a truly lamentable London side into submission long before Richard Moloney’s final whistle that couldn’t come quick enough.
There were 21 points in it in the end as Micheál McDermott’s charges hit 3-7 to London’s 0-1 in the second half – a romp, but above all an embarrassing day for the Exiles that would have been an awful lot worse had Clare not hit 17 wides over the 70 minutes.
Ten of those wides came in the first half, with David Tubridy being the worst culprit, but such was his influence on proceedings that he still hit 2-7 as Clare cruised to their second with from four games of the current campaign.
The game was always going to go Clare’s way, it was just a matter of what the margin was going to be and for much of the first half it looked as if London could limit the damage to respectable proportions thanks to the tactic of playing seven in defence. Although London leaked a goal as early as the seventh minute when Alan Clohessy beat London net- minder Brian McBrearty in the air and palmed David Tubridy’s long deliver to the net, they were still competitive for much of the half.
A couple of points from Eoin O’Neill frees left them only 1-2 to 0-2 behind after 25 minutes, but real daylight between the sides started to emerge two minutes later when a sweeping Clare move involving Rory Donnelly, Michael Foran and Alan Clohessy was fisted to the net by Gary Brennan.
This strike, which was followed by pointed frees from David Tubridy and another Eoin O’Neill effort for London left Clare 2-3 to 0-3 ahead at half-time, an advantage they swelled by a point a man when turning to play with the wind and into the scoreboard goal for the second half.
The wide count was mounted to by seven, but the scores mounted too as London’s challenge fell asunder when a re-jigged Clare that saw Gary Brennan re-located from full-forward to midfield started peppering the posts for fun.
The tone was set only 12 seconds in when the hard-working Niall Browne set up Alan Clohessy for a point, while the floodgates really started to open after David Tubridy latched on to a perceptive pass from Cathal O’Connor on the endline to drill a low shot to the net from a very tight angle.
From there it was target practice – for Clare and above all for David Tubridy as the Doonbegman marked his return from a two-match suspension hit a further 1-3 inside ten minutes as London’s defence was swamped. The points came from frees while Gary Brennan teed him up for his second goal in the 52nd minute.
Four minutes later it was Alan Clohessy’s turn to rattle the net as London went into complete meltdown – their only consolation for a nightmare half coming with virtually the last kick of the game when Eoin O’Neill hit his fourth point from a free.
The stats of a 21-point win for Clare; those 16 paying customers and the fact that London’s scoring contribution amount to just four frees made this game something of a waste of time.
A fixture to fulfill – nothing more.