The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
St Breckans 0-11 Ennistymon 0-8
LAST year’s intermediate champions St Breckans booked their spot in the last four in the race for Jack Daly with three points to spare in Cusack Park this evening.
Joe McGann was the conductor of the Breckans orchestra as he landed 0-6 in total while terrorising the Ennistymon full-back line throughout.
From the outset it was Breckans that dominated the exchanges as they patiently picked a way through the Ennistymon defense and regularly picked out their full forward line with accurate passes. Joe McGann and Jamie Stack in particular had the Ennistymon backs in all sorts of bother.
McGann and Aiden Davidson landed early points from play while Stack ensured it took just 13 minutes for the entire full-forward line to score.
McGann added a second after a beautiful mark to give Breckans a 0-3 to no score lead at the water break despite three bad wides early on.
Ennistymon couldn’t penetrate the well-drilled Breckans defense while Breckans added more scores through Dale Masterson, Stack and McGann.
It took Ennistymon 26 minutes to score after a brilliant solo effort from Cathal Malone, and it took roughly 26 seconds for them to add a second through Eoin Rouine.
Breckans responded well to restore their six-point lead with two more points from Stack and McGann to take a 0-8 to 0-2 lead into the break.
Upon resumption, Ennistymon found another gear and narrowed the gap to four points with scores from David Fitzgerald and Cillian Rouine as the game entered the final quarter.
McGann’s movement kept Ennistymon under severe pressure, though, and he landed his fourth and fifth points as the game entered its final 10 minutes.
Ennistymon went in search of the goal they badly needed but points from Cillian Rouine and Cathal Malone were all they could muster. Ennistymon’s influence grew as the game wore on but they ran out of time and they will rue not scoring for the first 26 minutes of the game.
For a full report and reaction, pick up next week’s Clare Champion.
