Clare U/21 footballers win Peter McNulty tournament

Clare 1-12 Limerick 0-12

INSPIRED by  0-9 from Lissycasey’s Conor Finucane, who put over 0-8 from play, the Clare U/21 footballers won their fourth successive game in this competition in capturing the Peter McNulty Memorial Tournament. The final was played at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday evening.

Ironically the only game Clare lost was to Limerick in Kilmihil in early January. Since then they have beaten Kildare, Wexford, Galway and now Limerick, all away from home.

Clare led narrowly, 0-8 to 0-7, at half time with Finucane and Eimhin Courntey accounting for all of Clare’s points.

Hugh Bourke kept Limerick competitive with 0-6 from frees over the hour, although he missed a couple of scoreable frees towards the end.

Approaching full time, Clare were just two points up, 0-12 to 0-10 but a close range goal from Joe McGann, following build up playing involving Keelan Sexton and Finucane, placed the St Breckan’s man for the goal. Limerick responded with points from AJ O’Connor and Mikey Morrissey but Clare held out for a commendable and morale boosting win. Finucane and Courtney excelled for Clare as did team captain Darren Nagle.

A more comprehensive report will be published in Thursday’s Clare Champion.

Clare: Killian Roche (Cooraclare); Ryan Griffin (Lissycasey), Darren Nagle (Liscannor), Colm Pyne (Killimer); Conall O’ hÁinféin (Ruan), Rory McMahon (Kildysart), Cillian Brennan (Clondegad); Darragh Bohannon (Shannon Gaels), Cian O’Dea (Kilfenora); Alan Sweeney (St Breckan’s), Keelan Sexton (Kilmurry Ibrickane), David Egan (Kilmihil); Eimhin Courtney (Éire Óg), Cathal Downes (O’Curry’s) and Conor Finucane (Lissycasey).

Subs: Jonah Culligan (Ballvaughan), for Colm Pyne (27), Aidan Davidson (St Breckan’s) for Cathal Downes (41), Sean O’Donohue (Cooraclare) for Darragh Bohannon (50), Joe McCann (St Breckan’s) for Eimhin Courtney (50), David Foran (Killimer) for David Egan (58) and Tom Hannon (Doora-Barefield) for Alan Sweeney (60).

Scorers: Conor Finucane (0-9, 1 f), Eimhin Courtney (0-3) and Joe McCann (1-0)

Ray Noonan; David Connolly, Michael Donovan, Edward Sheehy; Jim Liston, Cormac Flanagan, Robert Childs; Michael Whelan, Eoin Ryan; Shaun Murphy, Hugh Bourke, Padraig de Brun; Mark Connolly, AJ O’Connor, Killian Ryan.

Subs: Daniel Enright for Cormac Flanagan (18 black card); Kieran Daly for Padraig de Brun (31 black card), Brian Donovan for Eoin Ryan (37), Brian Fanning for Michael Whelan (43), Mikey Morrissey for Mark Connolly (45) and Steven Brosnan for Killian Ryan (55).

Scorers: Hugh Bourke (0-6 f), AJ O’Connor (0-3), Padraig de Brun, Brian Fanning, Mikey Morrissey (0-1 each).

Referee: Donnacha O’Callaghan