This article is from page 57 of the 2011-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 57 JPG
WHERE the FAI Junior Cup is concerned, Avenue United are the bluebloods – thank God for that, Clare Soccer League officials must have been thinking on Sunday as they reflected on a bleak day for the county in the biggest knockout tournament in Europe.
All because, The Avenue apart, all the remaining Clare clubs who saw action on the day bowed out at the third round stage in the Clare/Kerry/ Desmond area section of blue riband of the junior game.
Worse still, three of the defeats came at home, with Manus Celtic, Ennis Town Rock and Newmarket Celtic failing to use the advantage of home comforts as all three went down to Limerick opposition.
Manus fare worst of all, going down 6-1 to Broadford, Ennis Town Rock came off second best by 3-1 to Newcastlewest, while Newmarket Celtic were pipped 3-2 by Ballingarry in a five goal thriller.
Bunratty/Cratloe made the long journey to the west Kerry Gaeltacht to take on Dingle Bay Rovers. The sides were level 2-2 after extra time, but the home side advanced when winning the penalty shoot-out 4-2.
That left Avenue to carry the Clare flag as they made the journey to Tral- ee a profitable one as they beat Classic FC 3-1. Classic had beaten Killarney Celtic in the previous round, but Avenue were full value for the win.
The opened the scoring through after 25 minutes when David Smythe’s corner was fumbled to the net by the Classic keeper. The Tralee side got back on terms from a penalty on 35 minutes but second half goals from Mikey Mahony and Sean Corry sealed Avenue’s win on the road.
Avenue United
John Healy, Simon Cuddy, Con Collins, David Russell, Mattie Nugent, David Herlihy, Barry Nugent, Gary Flynn, David Smythe, David McCarthy, Mikey Mahony. Subs Sean Corry for Mahoney, Shane Browne for Barry Nugent, Paddy O’Malley for Flynn.