Sports

Derrick Lynch Clare will be hoping to make the most of home comforts on Sunday when they host Meath in Doonbeg in their National Ladies Football League Division Two encounter. It has been a difficult opening to the campaign for Clare, with three games against senior Ulster opposition resulting in three defeats. Sunday is Clare’s first time back in Doonbeg since the opening round and their Leinster opponents are a fellow intermediate side. Clare selector Enda O’Halloran says while results have not gone their way, they have been more focused on tracking progression of performances. “It has been a really tough start. We have had three hard games with Armagh at home and then two away games in Ulster. We have looked to improve in all three games and we are confident that has happened. We have reviewed what we have done so far and maybe on the scoring front we need to improve a bit more and create a …

CLARE welcome Wexford to Frank Healy Park this Saturday in the last eight of the Oscar Traynor Trophy and while the counties are miles apart, they are plenty familiar with each other. Not only did Clare defeat Wexford 2-0 in the 2017 Oscar Traynor semi-final en route to winning the competition, Clare’s manager Shane Keegan was at the helm of Wexford Youths for five years. Under Keegan, many of the current Wexford team won the League of Ireland First Division and Keegan knows the quality of the players his side will face this weekend. “I’d say at least half of the team, if not more, would have played for me at one stage or another at Wexford Youths, where I was manager for five seasons. A lot of their stronger players; Craig Delaney, Gary McCabe, Paul Murphy and more, played for me. They are a very strong side and maybe it is a little bit of a help to us …

Tulla United go in search of a place in the last four of the FAI U17 Cup this weekend. The East Clare outfit make the short trip to Galway on Saturday to take on Mervue United at their home grounds in a quarter-final tie. Tulla have been in fine goalscoring form in this competition so far this season, beating Coole FC 3-2 in the opening round before a 3-0 win over Shannon Town. They faced a tricky assignment in travelling to Waterford to face Tramore, but edged a high scoring tie 5-4, before beating College Corinthians 6-5 on a penalty shootout after finishing 1-1 in extra time. Emmet Lynch and Sean Withycombe will be their chief scoring threats in a game that gets underway on Saturday at 2pm. Elsewhere this weekend, Bridge United Youths welcome Charleville FC from the Limerick District League to Sixmilebridge on Saturday at 2pm hoping to secure a semi final place in the Munster Youths Cup. …

For Clare’s elite soccer clubs, February is generally a month for fine tuning and preparing for the business end of national and provincial competitions. Unfortunately for all supporters of Clare soccer, this is the first year for quite some time that there is no representative in the latter stages of the standard bearing competitions. These are competitions that all Clare clubs are striving to win in order to be the first to claim that major title, which has eluded so many great Clare teams in the past. It is hard to believe It’s now 30 years since the great Avenue Utd team played in the FAI Junior Cup final, and while Newmarket Celtic have played in a number of Munster Finals in that time, Clare are still no closer to having a club win that big one. This year is no different, and I think even the most avid supporters of Avenue United, Newmarket Celtic and Shannon Town will agree …

CONOR Mullen knows what it takes to win Oscar Traynor titles as he right back has done so twice with Clare and the captain thinks his side can go all the way once again. Clare face a tough Wexford side riddled with class but Mullen says the knockout stages hold no fears for his side. “Since we have progressed past the group stages, we have the pick of all of Clare now, which is ideal. It is great to have lads that have been there and done that to come back into the side. To have two junior internationals returning to the side [Stephen Kelly and Eoin Hayes] is going to make a huge difference. “Soccer in Clare is very strong at the moment with Newmarket doing so well, Avenue are getting back to where they should be – the standard in this county is very strong. Obviously, the standard in Wexford is very good too but with all the …

Derrick Lynch Most people involved in sport will tell you that there is no such thing as a certainty, but in the case of Denis Hynes that is not necessarily true. If there is something positive happening for soccer in Clare, you can take it as read that the Ennistymon man will be involved in some capacity. Hynes was appointed as the full time FAI Devlopment Officer in Clare in 2008, and in that time he has played a key role in taking the standard of the game in the county to the next level. His passion for the game coupled with his easy-going demeanour are the perfect combination for someone fostering the Clare soccer stars of the future, while his standing in the game in the county makes him a respected coach for the flagship Oscar Traynor side. It also means that when Clare take to the field on Saturday for their Oscar Traynor showdown with Wexford, Hynes will …

Derrick Lynch The Clare U-13 soccer team go in search of national glory this weekend when they make the trip to Mullingar for the Subway SFAI All-Ireland Plate Final. The young Banner stars have already tasted success this season by winning the Munster Championship Plate in recent weeks, and booked their spot in Saturday’s final with a hard fought 1-0 win over Donegal last time out. Coach Davy Kerins praised his side for coming through such a tough battle. He said: “It was tough the last day. Donegal are a quality side and the conditions weren’t great. We were lucky that the long ball over the top fell to Darragh Ball and fair play to him, he finished it well. He showed great confidence to take that chance and the whole team played really well”. The squad have been training since last September, with coach Wayne Burke having to step aside due to work commitments early in the campaign. That …

Munster U20 Football Quarter-Final: Clare 3-14 Waterford 0-6 Clare set up a last four showdown with Cork after a dominant display on a wet and windy night in Miltown. Shane Meehan’s first half goal was the major difference between the sides at the break as the Banner GAA man slotted a classy finish to the net inside the closing ten minutes. Waterford had the aid of a gale for the opening period, but it was Clare who were playing the more controlled football with support runners hitting the line at pace. Waterford held the upper hand on their own kick-outs and anything positive they did came from that platform. Cillian Rouine and Daniel Walsh were anchoring the defence well but Waterford still found space when they broke. The sides were level at the 15 minutes mark at 0-2 each with Mark McInerney notching both of Clare’s scores, and that dovetail between the Eire Óg man and Meehan was threatening to …