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Clare’s builders ‘underemployed’

CONNOLLY Celtic became the lat- est side to fall prey to the goal scor- ing talents of Rock Rovers hitman Stephen Hickey on Sunday.

Hickey scored a hat-trick to secure a win that puts Rock three points clear at the top of division one.

Hickey struck midway through the first half and twice after half time to kill off the challenge of a spirited Connolly side.

Brendan Dillon scored a late con- solation goal for bottom of the table Connolly who dominated for long stretches of the second half.

Indeed Celtic squandered a glori- ous opportunity to tie the game early in the second half.

Rock, who were far from their best, were thankful to Hickey’s predatory instincts close to goal.

The striker had already seen one

towering header rebound of the foot the post before he gave Rock the lead.

Connolly will be disappointed with the manner in which they conceded the goal. The away side were award- ed a free kick from a promising posi- tion on the right.

However the ball was cleared swift- ly to Hickey who broke clear of an under-manned Connolly defence to score.

Connolly caused plenty of prob- lems for the Rock defence early in the second half but were desperately unfortunate not to score.

Rock, with David Considine a steadying prescence in midfield, sur- vived and doubled their advantage in the 65th minute.

Brian Fitzpatrick picked out Hickey with a great pass, and, as before, he buried to the back of the net.

The goal took the wind out of Con-

nolly and minutes later the visitors fell further behind. This time Dean Gardiner did the spadework, digging out a byline cross that Hickey tapped home from close range.

Dillon scored a deserved goal late on when he created a yard on the edge of the area and found the net with a low drive.

The future may not look too grim for Connolly if they can play with the same attitude for the remainder of the season. Rock, meanwhile, will hope Hickey keeps doing what he does best.

THIS was a must win for both teams and for very different reasons. Lif- ford, on the back of a disappointing loss to Newmarket on St Patrick’s Day, had to win to stay in with any kind of chance at league honours. The Newmarket defeat meant they missed on the opportunity to close the gap on leaders Bunratty and a successive defeat would almost cer- tainly have dashed their title hopes.

Moher, on the other hand, are bat- tling the long arm of relegation and needed to get something from the game to ensure they stayed in touch at the bottom of the table.

In the end, the game went accord- ing to league standings but it came with a scare for Lifford as well. Twice Moher lifted their game to reel in Lifford but eventually, Lifford had enough class and composure to see them through to securing that much needed victory.

In the early stages, it seemed as though Lifford could run away with the game as they took control of the game and on five minutes they were rewarded for their hard work when Ryan Boyle was on target.

Moher didn’t he down though and Johnny Daly popped up to direct a free kick to the net with a fine header that equalised proceedings. It an ac- tion packed first half, Lifford once more pressed forward and Roberto put them back in front after a neat dribble from the edge of the box saw him drive the ball low and accurately into the corner of the Moher goal.

But the away side still weren’t finished and just before the break, Shane Keane headed home Moher’s second goal to leave the sides locked at 2-2 at the break.

Just when it looked like Lifford could become frustrated with the lack of a breakthrough, David Mc- Carthy popped up with a superb strike. David McCarthy latched onto a cleared header and volleyed to the top corner from the edge of the box. From there, Lifford dominated and took the points to ensure they could still have a say in this year’s league.

LIFFORD B march on after spring- ing a cup surprise against Mount- shannon Celtic on Sunday.

The Ennis side progressed to the quarter finals thanks to two assists from goalkeeper Joe Burke and two razor sharp finishes from Adrian McDonagh.

Admittedly, Lifford were helped along the way by some very careless defending from Mountshannon.

Having been the superior side throughout the second half, Lifford still hadn’t found a way through when their fortunes turned in un-ex- pected fashion.

Lifford goalkeeper Joe Burke launched a long kick out at the Mounthshanon back four in the 77th minute.

His opposite number, Christopher Jones, rushed out but failed to hold the ball. Lifford’s Adrian McDonagh drilled home from a tight angle to give his side the lead.

Six minutes later, Lifford had one foot in the quarterfinals. The second goal was almost a carbon copy of the first with McDonagh again latching onto Burke’s goal-kick to lift the ball into the net.

Mountshannon will be sick at be- ing knocked out in such elementary fashion. Both goals were prevent- able. But take nothing away from McDonagh. Both strikes were well executed and indicative of Lifford’s

Superior cutting edge upfront. The roots of Lifford’s victory are prob- ably to be found in the decision at half time to switch formation from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2.

First division Mounthshannon had given their second division oppo- nents a bit of run around in midfield in the first half. In response, Lifford manager Lenny Franks teamed Pa Mannion, Darren Daly and Adrian Walsh in the centre of the park with

instructions to shut down Mount- shannon’s passing game.

The move worked a treat. Lifford saw more of the ball and gradually took a grip on the game.

Mountshannon, even with Cathal and John Moloney working like de- mons in midfield, rarely troubled Lifford’s well-organised defence.

The east Clare side might reflect that they should have done better with their earlier chances. 18 minutes

had elapsed when Burke got down smartly to tip away Arthur Burzyn- ski’s low drive.

Burzynski flashed a half volley just over the cross bar soon after as Mountshannon raised the tempo. Lifford’s best chance of the half ar- rived when Francis Franks teed up Stephen McGuane who squeezed a shot away from five yards that was held by Jones. Q-0 at half time and it was Lifford who seized the initia-

tive thereafter. McGuane lifted over from a tight angle in the 48th minute before Darren Daly’s drive from 20 yards trailed just wide.

The home side were clearly on top and should have taken the lead in the 57th minute when McDonagh headed over from Eoghan Judge’s cross.

Burzynski made Burke work with a curling shot soon after. That was as good it got for Mounthshannon.

Minutes later Burke and McDon- agh teamed up to give Lifford the lead before the duo combined again to rubberstamp Lifford’s place in the quarter-finals and who knows, maybe a crack against their clubmates from Lifford A.

BARON de Coubertin’s Olympic ideals of “Stronger, Faster, Higher” could well have been borrowed by the other Olympic on Sunday morn- ing — the Shannon version that is, as they sent shock waves around the county in dumping eight times cham- pions and competition favourites Av- enue United out of this year’s Clare Cup race.

“Everything clicked for us,” said manager Jason Stretton afterwards. “We put everything into it and it hap- pened for us,” added the former Clare Cup winner with Newtown.

Conversely, it didn’t happen for Avenue United as their roller coast- er form of the past month contin- ued over a depressing 90 minutes. Dumped out of the cup at the last 16 stage and facing an uphill battle to prevent Bunratty from claiming the league title, 1t could be another trophy-less year for the bluebloods of the Clare game.

Olympic, meanwhile, are now genuine contenders for the cup title, while they’re hot on the heels of cur- rent champions Rock Rovers in the promotion race out of Division 1.

This cup tie effectively turned seis- mically in Olympic’s favour in the first half — a chance missed at one end by Avenue and an amazing goal

down the other end by Olympic.

Opportunity knocked for the home side after 25 minutes when star at- tacker Mikey Mahony burst into the area — on another day Mahony would have applied a clinical finish, but on this day he was thwarted by Kieran McCarthy.

From Avenue’s point of view this miss was compounded 15 minutes later when Wayne Regan whipped a right footed inswinging corner from the left all the way into the top corner of the net beyond the flailing arms of Colin Smyth.

It was a hammer blow, but one Av-

enue looked like recovering from when they dominated the early ex- changes of the second half. Ten min- utes in Eamon O’Reilly was denied by the crossbar, while in the resulting scramble the ball was cleared off the line.

It was as close as Avenue came to

levelling things up — the Olympic defence in which Paul O’Connor and Jan Hogan were outstanding soaked up everything Avenue could throw at them before they broke out of de- fence and struck for the all-important second goal ten minutes from time.

With centre-forward James Fit- zgerald causing Avenue endless problems, a second goal was always likely, but in the end a mistake by Eamon O’Reilly let in Ray Quigley who skipped past a few defenders be- fore rolling the ball underneath Co- lin Smyth to book Olympic’s quarter- final place.

WITH their hopes of retaining their league title all but over, the cup now becomes the main priority for New- market Celtic. The ten times winners may not have been in the winners enclosure since 2000 but they eased their passage into the last eight on Sunday with a comfortable victory over Bridge Celtic B.

Off the back of two battling results against fellow title contenders Av- enue Utd and Lifford, and barring the shock of the tournament, New- market were always fancied to easily account for the third division side as they had already beaten Celtic’s first side in the previous round. However, it did given stand-in manager Paudie Cullinan the opportunity to test out some of his fringe players and they responded with an assured display.

Still, Bridge Celtic’s second string didn’t make it easy for their Premier Division opposition and while they never really looked like breaking the deadlock themselves, they did frus- trate Newmarket sufficiently in the first half. Had they held out until the break, it would have given them great confidence but a Keith Power goal just before half-time, finally settled Newmarket and from that point on, it was only damage limitation for the O’Briensbridge side.

Eased by that breakthrough goal, the floodgates opened for Newmar- ket in the second period with two Siullery headers and a second from

Power guiding them to a 4-0 advan- tage. Worse was to follow for Bridge Celtic when the impressive Sillery was taken down in the area and Sea- mus Considine converted the penalty and Newmarket’s Grand Slam Sun- day was completed when substitute Jimmy Houlihan grabbed the sixth.

With Avenue’s surprise exit to Shannon Olympic on Sunday, New- market are now installed amongst the favourites for this year’s Clare Cup along with Lifford and holders Rock Rovers. From here on in, it will come down to the luck of the Friday night’s draw as Newmarket look to secure some silverware out of the Tere) IF

FOR the second successive match, Cratloe held the upper hand in this local derby but they had to endure a real scare before finally collecting the Opening points of the season. With both clubs still involved in the Under 21 championship and county senior action dominating the weekend’s fixtures, selections were hampered but it was Sixmilebridge who missed their big guns most as Cratloe dom1- nated for the majority. From the out- set, Cratloe were hungry and sharp while the Bridge appeared sluggish and at times static when striking and that combination meant that Cratloe were never behind over the hour and at times looked all too comfortable.

However, after building up a 0-13 to O-08 advantage by the 40th minute, perhaps a grain of complacency crept in as a rejuvinated Sixmilebridge tacked over five unanswered points to draw level by the 55th minute. They couldn’t take full advantage though as Cratloe finally recovered to score the final three points and avoid a ma- jor slip-up.

The early season rustiness was ful- ly evident throughout the match, em- pitomised by the amount of needless and lazy frees given away on both

sides that rival marksmen Damien Browne and Stiofan Fitzpatrick gob- bled up with ease. However, aside from Fitzpatrick and occasionally Danny Morey, Sixmilebridge never really carried a threat up front and had too many passengers while Crat- loe had a strong launching pad from their half-back line and midfield and seemed to have more options in the final third. That was essentially the difference in the first half as Cratloe, despite facing into the breeze, took the game to the Bridge and had six different scorers in their 0-10 to O-7 half-time lead while all but one point from the Bridge came from Fitz- patrick’s placed balls.

Sixmilebridge made changes at the break, introducing John Reddan at centre-forward and pushing Fitz- patrick to full-forward and that part- nership would prove fruitful later in the game. However, it would get a lot worse before it would improve for the Bridge as two Browne °65’s and a point from Gearoid Ryan cancelled out Danny Morey opening point and gave the home side a O-13 to 0-8 cushion by the 40th minute.

Then out of nothing, the game be- gan to turn. An Adrian Chaplin pull was excellently blocked by goal- keeper Hayes, John Reddan began

to win vital possession around the centre and Stiofan Fitzpatrick looked increasingly threatening inside and it gave the Bridge momentum as the lead began to topple. Points from Fit-

Zpatrick (3), Danny Morey and sub- stitute Eoin Quinn restored parity by the 55th minute and all of a sudden, it was the Bridge who looked the more likely winners.

However, ringing the changes and finally coming to life once more, Cratloe hit back and it was Gearoid Ryan who eased the tension in injury time when he pointed over his shoul- der and that relief was manifested further when Damien Browne was presented with two easy frees to ce- ment the win and continue their new- found hold over their local rivals.

BEATING Kilkenny at any level is a memorable feat. Beating the cur- rent All-Ireland intermediate cham- pions Kilkenny in only their second game therefore has to go down as a momentous achievement and finally gives the management, players and even the county board justification for their forward planning of enter- ing a second team.

This was as good and surprisingly comfortable as it 1s every going to get for Clare’s second string. Last time out, they perhaps lacked some leadership as Tipperary eased to a seven point victory but that fraility was rectified on Sunday with the in- troduction of six new starters. Carol O’Leary, Aiveen O’Shea, Niamh Corry, Louise Hayes, Aine O’Brien, Chloe Morey and Roisin O’Brien were all brought in to add more ex- perience and balance to the side and it certainly had the desired effect as Clare were far superior and sharp- er than their Leinster opponents throughout.

Chloe Morey, who was playing her second game in as many days, was utilised as a third midfielder and along with partners Louise Hayes

and Niamh Corry, Clare really con- trolled this tie. Another highlight was the performance of Carol Kaiser who really began to come into her own when switched to centre-back to curtail Kilkenny’s playmaker Eileen Fitzpatrick, who had got Kilkenny’s only score of the game in the 34th minute.

Aside from that scare, it was a straightforward stroll to victory as Kilkenny’s expected fightback never really materialised. Clare can only beat what’s put in front of them though and really that fear of a Kil- kenny recovery benfitted Clare who remained focused right up to the fi- nal whistle.

Clare were 0-6 to 0-0 ahead at the break, taking advantage of a slight breeze that blew towards Limerick. Danielle Sheedy opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a free and inadvertently turned provider for the second, sending in another long free that was batted by goalkeeper Siob- han Murphy to Roisin O’Brien who continued her impressive scoring run with a point. In all, the Ogonnelloe player hit four points of Clare’s to- tal, making her Clare’s only scorer from play in the league so far with Six points.

Danielle Sheedy almost secured a goal for her side in the 10th minute when she caught a Niamh Corry pass over the top of the Kilkenny defence and took on her marker before un- leashing a shot but it was saved by Murphy for a *45 that Chloe Morey converted.

Kilkenny did have their fair share of possession but a lack of a reliable freetaker and some aimless shooting frustrated them in their endeavours. Instead, Clare kept plugging away and frees from Morey, Sheedy and an injury time point from O’Brien eased Clare to a six point half-time lead.

The only real tension for Clare came four minutes after half-time when a revitalised Kilkenny attempted to grab a lifeline. Three early wides were eventually made up for when Niamh Byrne’s shot was saved by Denise Lynch and Eileen Fitzpatrick was on hand to hit the rebound to the am

Fitzpatrick was by now starting to pull the strings for the Leinster side and had another shot on goal in the 38th minute but this time Lynch was equal to the effort. It caused Clare to switch Carol Kaiser to centre-back and it proved to be the turning point

of the game as the Newmarket player nullified her threat for the remain- der.

From that point on, Clare gradually regained their confidence and the trio of Chloe Morey (2), Roisin O’Brien (2) and Danielle Sheedy were again on target as Clare eased up to victo- ry. A significant result that will give Clare great confidence for the rest of the campaign.

TAKING the medical card office out of Ennis will destroy the flexibility of the service and could leave many people who are entitled to medi- cal cards without them, it has been warned.

The Health Service Executive has announced that it is to close the medical cards office in the Sandfield Centre in Ennis, where 11 staff are currently employed.

The service will be centralised in Dublin as part of the HSE’s plan to Am eKe ys ASF

But Ennis councillor Joe Arkins, has warned that centralising the

service in Ennis will take away vital flexibility.

‘‘A person may be over the earnings limit for a medical card but they may still qualify. If someone lives in Mul- lagh and drives to Ennis to work, that is the kind of thing that can be taken into consideration and that takes lo- cal knowledge. We now have to try to translate that information to some- one in an office in Dublin. It won’t work,” the councillor said.

STAs Cima sc bunce mm sit mmenomm Els. ibility of the service will be seriously WOK oee

‘At present you can go to the office in Ennis, outline your circumstances and have an emergency medical card

in a matter of hours. That will be gone. This is a totally retrograde step and flies in the face of the Govern- ment’s decentralisation policy.”

The decision comes following a stark warning from the head of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, that required cost-cutting measures will soon begin to impact on front- line health services.

11 staff are employed in medical card and drug payment services at the Sandfield centre which is one of 32 offices across the country.

The jobs in Ennis and other centres are now under threat following con- firmation from the HSE that it plans to centralise primary care re-im-

bursement services to Dublin to save €10 million a year with temporary staff to be made redundant and other staff redeployed to other jobs.

Staff in Ennis say they are also concerned about the loss of personal contact with members of the public and IMPACT union spokeswoman for Clare Sinead Wynne said there is more than administration services being lost.

Ennis staff are now looking to their union to open negotiations with the HSE in a bid to reverse the plans and IMPACT has called on the public to support it’s members “before the people of Clare lose another impor- tant service”.

THE hurlers of Kilmaley and The Banner/Ruan were left 1n no doubt as to what their hosts Eire Og thought of them on Saturday afternoon when shunted on to the unlined second- ary pitch to play this championship game.

It wasn’t good enough — if the club agreed to open its facilities for a championship game in the first place, the least it should have done was to have made the club’s main pitch available, instead of having the county board fixture play second fid- dle to a challenge game.

However, this state of affairs wasn’t

for Kilmaley and Banner/Ruan to kick up about — that’s the county board’s job. All they could do was make the best of their ungenerous hosts and get on with it.

In this regard, Kilmaley certainly made a better fist of it, romping to an eight-point win on the back of a blis- tering start that saw them race into a O-6 to no score lead inside the first ten minutes and the overall display of sharpshooter Daire Keane who scored 11 points over the hour.

This opening salvo was all the more noteworthy as Kilmaley were playing against the breeze that was blowing down the field towards the St Flannan’s handball alleys. And it

was virtually the single-handed work of right-half-forward Keane, who bagged five of the six scores.

Two came from play, while he also converted two frees and two 65s as The Banner/Ruan were left reeling by the early onslaught. However, they threw themselves a lifeline as early as the 15th minute when Eoin Hanrahan ran on to a long delivery from Brendan Lyons and pulled a low ground shot to the net from sev- TUE NK Oe

The Banner/Ruan looked like mak- ing areal game of it when Pat Keegan drove an 80 yard free over the bar in the 19th minute, but 1t was the cue for Kilmaley to hit another purple patch

and a flurry of six more points to a lone reply from Keegan gave them a Q-12 to 1-2 interval lead.

Again it was down to Daire Keane — this time he bagged four more points within the space of five min- utes while John Cabey and Mickey O’Neill chipped in with a couple to put Kilmaley seven clear at the break.

The Banner/Ruan started the sec- ond half with early points form Pat Keegan and Finchra Hayes, but five points was as close as they got. Kil- maley steadied themselves once more when the impressive Stephen McNamara pointed and were never troubled thereafter, outscoring Ban- ner/Ruan by O-3 to 0-1 in the closing 20 minutes as the game petered out to its inevitable conclusion.