Tag Archives: soccer

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 …

A big week for Clare soccer will kick off on Sunday when the county team will take on Dublin AUL in the final of the Oscar Traynor inter-league competition at the Crumlin astro turf at 2pm. It’s Clare’s fourth time in the final in modern times and while their opponents, the Leinster Senior League, will start as favourites, there is an air of confidence that the title can be captured for the second time in local soccer history. When Clare won the crown back in 2004, they beat the Dublin side. That game was played at Ballycasey and the scoreline was 2-1. Stephen Kiernan was in the Dublin line-up on that occasion and he is now part of their management team. While Clare boss Donie Garrihy won’t name his starting 11 until nearer match time, it will include a good mix of youth and experience. Team captain Pat Purcell, who will fill a central defensive role and goalkeeper Barry Ryan, …

CLARE will take on the Leinster Senior League in the Oscar Traynor final on Sunday, May 8 at Crumlin FC’s grounds at 2pm. Clare are seeking to bridge a 12 year gap since their last triumph. While Clare had sought to play the game on the previous day, their requests fell on deaf ears.  

For the third time in recent weeks, Newmarket Celtic will face Janesboro from Limerick. This time they meet in the semi-final of the Munster Junior Cup at Carew Park on Sunday at 2pm. Their first meeting was in the quarter-final of the FAI Junior Cup, a tie played at McDonogh Park in Newmarket where the visitors were 1-0 winners. On Sunday last, Janesboro crashed out of that competition when they suffered a 4-1 loss to Sherrif FC from Dublin at the semi-final stage. The County Grounds in Doora was the venue for their meeting in the Munster Champions Cup final two weeks ago and here again, the Limerick side took the honours, the score this time being 2-1 after the Clare champions were in the lead. There was little between the sides in both games, so Newmarket supporters are confident the tables can be turned this weekend. Celtic have a few injury worries going into this tie with doubts about …

This Saturday and Sunday will, arguably, be the biggest weekend in the history of Clare soccer, as both the county youths and junior sides seek to qualify for the national finals of their respective competitions. The Colm Ryan-managed youths team travels to play Cork on Saturday (kick-off at 3pm) while, 22 hours later, the juniors, managed by Donie Garrihy, will entertain Donegal in the Oscar Traynor semi-final (kick-off at 1pm) at the County Grounds in Doora. While the juniors have been knocking on the door of Oscar Traynor success in recent years, it’s been quite a while since the youths were involved at this stage of the competition. Indeed, Clare struggled to put a team together at this level on occasions in the past decade. A storming second-half performance saw the youths record a comfortable 5-2 win over Waterford in the quarter-final two weeks ago. In that tie, the combination of Kieran Mahoney, Aidan Kennedy and Adam Gilbert caused massive …