Tag Archives: soccer

FACING Inishowen in Sunday’s Oscar Traynor decider is the final Clare manager Donie Garrihy wanted last year. “We were up there, we watched them beat Galway in Deacy Park and they won well. They are very passionate players. We watched them against the Leinster Senior League. They had an man sent off and Leinster Senior League caught them in the last five minutes. I was on the pitch afterwards with Denis Hynes and I shook hands with Inishowen manager Denis O’Brien, whom I admire very much. I said ‘we are so disappointed’. We were looking forward to playing the final there; it’s such a brilliant pitch.” The Doolin man added, “We went on and won the final and there were great celebrations followed by a civic reception, which was brilliant. It fills you with pride but you must keep your feet on the ground as well. The target again this year was to get out of the group. It was …

QUILTY girl Chloe Moloney will be a vital member of the Republic of Ireland’s U-19 soccer squad, as they seek to qualify for the European Championships next week. Managed by Dave Connell, all three games will be played at the Markets Field in Limerick in the elite qualifying round. Next Tuesday, Ireland will play Scotland at 7pm, followed by their second group game, against Ukraine, on Thursday, April 6, at the same time. On Sunday, April 9, at 2pm, Ireland will meet Finland in their final group game. This is Chloe’s final year playing at U-19 level and the Peamount United centre-half is hoping that Ireland can top the group. “One team comes out of the group to go to the European finals in Belfast in August. We had two recent friendlies against the Czech Republic in Barcelona. We won the first 3-0 and we lost the second 3-2. We were missing a few because three of our girls were …

Rochestown College, Cork 2  St.Caimins Shannon 1 St.Caimins Shannon will have to wait at least another year to realise their dream of winning a first Munster colleges soccer title. At the astroturf pitch at Charleville sports complex this afternoon they had to give best to favourites, Rochestown College from Cork in the under 17 A decider. The win completed a great double for the Cork school as, earlier i n the week, they captured the under 19 title. Today’s win in the under 17 final was deserved as they were the better balanced side throughout. they had the better of the first half exchanges and deservingly took the lead thanks to a powerful Josh Hanrahan header after seventeen minutes. This score separated the sides at the interval and, to be fair, the winners were a little unlucky not to have been further ahead as they had enjoyed the better of matters in the opening forty minutes. Twelve minutes into the …

TITLE holders Clare, who have made it through to the knock-out stage of the Oscar Traynor competition, will go into their final group game against Roscommon on Sunday without their captain Stephen Kelly. The Newmarket Celtic junior international suffered a leg injury when helping his club to victory over Aungier Celtic from Dublin in the FAI Junior Cup last week and the injury is likely to keep him out of action until the new year. Clare manager Donie Garrihy hopes to have forward Dave McCarthy available for Sunday’s game. Like Kelly, he missed last Sunday’s Munster Junior Cup tie with Newmarket, ruled out due to ’flu, but Clare boss Garrihy is confident that he will be fit for Sunday’s contest. Tulla’s Darragh Corry has been out of action for a number of weeks and will again be an absentee on Sunday. While Clare have already qualified for the next phase in this competition, they want to top the group and …

THE Clare and District side that won this year’s Oscar Traynor was granted a civic reception by Clare County Council this week, which manager Donie Garrihy said was one of the highlights of his life. The civic reception took place on Monday evening and Garrihy said he was extremely grateful to the local authority. “We are so humbled as a group of players; we are so humbled as a league. It is spectacular to be here.” He said he was delighted that many figures from Clare soccer were in attendance, saying he was in “super company”. Garrihy added, “It’s an emotional time for me as manager. I see the squad here and they are dressed immaculately. They are dressed immaculately in respect of the people who are giving us this opportunity here in the county council chamber. I always said they were men; they are real men. I love every one of them to bits. The league has always supported …

FRANK Healy Park in Doora will be the venue on Saturday evening at 5pm for the opening game in this season’s Oscar Traynor Cup. Clare will begin the defence of the title, won impressively last year, when they take on Galway with a side that will be drawn from a panel similar to that which won the title. The sides met last year in Eamonn Deacy Park in Galway, where they played a 1-1 draw. Clare are again be under the management of Donie Garrihy and his backroom team of David Russell and Denis Hynes. “There is no talk about defending titles or achieving back-to-back successes. This is a new campaign and we have some new players. This is the first game in a four-team group and Galway will be difficult opponents. There will be an extra bit of pressure on because we are playing at home. Because we are the title holders, all will be wanting to take a …

AT Barnsley since last summer, Bunratty’s Jeff McGowan is halfway through a two-year scholarship with the Yorkshire club. It hasn’t been an easy season for the 17-year-old striker, who only got to line-out for the club’s U-18 side on a handful of occasions due to bureaucracy. “It was a tough enough year for me in fairness, I had a lot of setbacks. There was a problem coming over here with international clearance and stuff like that. I only started playing around January because I had to wait a good few months for the international clearance. It was tricky enough,” he says. Asked why it took so long for the paperwork to be sorted, he says big clubs take priority. “There’s a process that has to be done. The teams like the Man Uniteds and the Man Citys, their foreign players get it first and it kind of works down. There was a hold up with that.” Because of the situation, …

Leinster Senior League     2                               Clare League    5 The Clare strike force of Eoin Hayes and David McCarthy ran amok in the Oscar Traynor final, tearing the Leinster Senior League’s defence to ribbons at Crumlin. McCarthy was named man of the match which was hardly surprising as he scored four of the goals, but Hayes was equally important to Clare’s victory. He scored the other goal from a penalty,  provided assists for three of McCarthy’s goals and his movement frightened the life out of the Leinster Senior League rearguard. Even supporters of the home side were quick to praise Hayes, who was frequently on a different level to all around him.   Clare were also assisted by a piece of indiscipline by Leinster’s Eoin Lanigan, who was sent off early in the second half after a completely pointless kick out at Clare captain Paddy Purcell. Clare would also finish the game with ten, following an injury to Hayes after …