This article is from page 66 of the 2011-04-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 66 JPG
Whitegate 3-11 – Clarecastle 1-12 at Clarecastle
THE EARLY bird did indeed catch the worm on Sunday morning as an alert Whitegate caught the sleepy home side napping to secure a vital first victory of the campaign. The east Clare side had an early start to travel to Clarecastle for the 12 noon throwin but it seemed to brace them for action as they pulled off an impressive victory, despite being without key regulars such as Eric Minogue, Tommy Holland, George Waterstone and Patrick Minogue.
The Magpies can have no complaints as once they were headed near the end of the first half, they failed to recapture the lead despite holding the wind advantage in the second period. That eventuality didn’t appear on the cards in the opening quarter as the home sie eased into a 1-2 to 00 lead after ten minutes, with Tyrone Kearse getting the goal through a 20 metre free which made up for his previous effort minutes earlier that bizarrely thundered off the crossbar from close range and ended up going out for a lineball.
A 16th minute volleyed goal from Niall Hayes injected some belief into the visitors and they were soon ahead in the 20th minute when Ian Fahy soloed through the heart of the Magpie rearguard before unleashing an unstoppable drive from 30 metres to the top corner of the net.
Clarecastle’s standout forward Kearse as well as Darragh Moloney and Patrick Kelly levelled up the game at 2-2 to 1-5 by the 23rd minute but by now Whitegate had the bit between their teeth and with Michael Dooley, Brendan Bugler and Christy Jones, stopping the Clarecastle supply, they finished the half strongly with successive points from Michael O’Brien (2) and Ian Fahy to lead by two at the break.
With the wind to come, the home side wouldn’t have been unduly worried at the break but despite the introduction of debutant Kieran O’Dwyer who was a physical presence around the centre as well as Sean Talty, the expected Magpie fightback never materialised.
The lively Kearse was unlucky with a pull that agonisingly drifted wide of the far post early in the half, a miss that was magnified when Terence Fahy doubled on an Andrew Fahey free in the 40th minute to give his side a 3-7 to 1-8 advantage.
That five point margin would remain more or less until the final whistle, aside from a brief recovery when Danny Scanlon had a shot repelled by Fahey while the follow up from substitute Sean Talty just going the wrong side of the crossbar. Two further goal chances from Kearse failed to billow the net while at the other end, Michael O’Brien capped off a memorable win for Whitegate with a late double.
Whitegate
AndrewFahey (0-4 3f, 1’65), John Minogue, John Bugler, Cathal Mulvihill, Christy Jones, Brendan Bugler, Jason Malone, Shane O’Rourke, Michael Dooley, Michael O’Brien (0-4), Ian Fahy (1-1), Stephen Malone (0-1), Eoin Quirke (0-1),Terence Fahy (1-0), Niall Hayes (1-0)
Clarecastle
Jamie Coughlan, Kevin Clohessy, Garrett Barry, Fearghus Ryan, Patrick Kelly (0-2), Stephen O’Halloran,Anthony Griffey, Jonathan Clancy, Derek Quinn (0-2 1f), Eric Flynn, Darragh Moloney (0-2),Aaron Considine, Danny Scanlon,Tyrone Kearse (1-5 1-1f)
Subs
Kieran O’Dwyer for Griffey (27 mins), Sean Talty (0-1) for Flynn (HT), Jamie O’Connor for Moloney (47 mins), Jason Considine for Scanlon (50 mins)
Man of the Match
Michael Dooley (Whitegate) Referee Ger Lyons (Ruan) Tubber 1-16 Cor ofin 3-07 @ Tubber TUBBER came out victorious against Corofin at home on Sunday hitting 1-1 without reply in the closing stages which put them ahead to seal the win. Tubber went four points to no score up early on but then a scrappy goal from a high ball into the Tubber area brought Corofin back into the game. More points from Mark Early and David O’Donoghue gave Tubber the advantage at the interval as they led, 0-7 to 1-3. Corofin got another goal early in the second half through Stephen Heagney as the ball managed to find to net through a group of players and
a similar goal from Declan Lee fol- lowed 15 minutes later.
Tubber stayed close with points coming from Shane and Barry O’Connor and Clive Early converting four frees. Then with two minutes remaining Barry O’Connor scored the goal that put Tubber ahead and Corofin failed to reply giving Tubber the win.