Clare 3-24
Wexford 1-20 (AET)

The margin between the teams at sun-splashed Semple Stadium on Saturday evening suggests a comfortable victory but while the Banner men were deserving winners and clearly the better team, they came within a whisker of blowing their chances in the 2013 championship.

A Wexford goal in the second minute of injury time levelled the game and sent the match to extra time where, to their credit, Clare hit 2-3 without reply in the first period to kill off the Slaneysiders challenge and set up an All-Ireland quarter final clash with Galway on Sunday week.

Not for the first time this season, Clare failed to convert a large share of the chances they created. Had they not been as wasteful, they would have won this tie in normal time and with plenty to spare.

One of the big talking points in recent weeks has been the failure of Cratloe’s Cathal McInerney to get much game time. The dual star wasn’t available for the Laois match due to injury but he was back in the squad for Saturday’s game and, five minutes from the end of normal time, he was introduced in place of Shane O’Donnell.

He continued at full-forward for the extra time and struck vital blows in the fourth and eighth minutes of the first period when he hit goals for Clare in between which he also scored a point.
His clubmate, Conor McGrath, provided the final pass for both goals while another Cratloe man, Podge Collins, was also involved for one of the goals.

Clare had one change from the team that lined out against Laois a week earlier for Saturday’s game. As predicted, Shane O’Donnell came in for the injured Darach Honan.
Two Colin Ryan frees had Clare in front by the second minute but Jack Guiney converted two to tie up the game by the fifth before Garrett Sinnott put Wexford in front for the only time in the game, in the eighth minute.

After 12 minutes without a score, Shane O’Donnell won possession from a John Conlon delivery and fired home the game’s opening goal. Ryan from a ’65, Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell followed with points and Clare were six clear midway through the first half.

As has been the case in a number of their games this year, Clare were again creating a lot of scoring opportunities but failing to convert quite a number, a combination of poor finishing and strong defending by the Leinster outfit contributing.

Indeed at least two Wexford defenders were fortunate to escape serious censure following tackles on Paudge Collins and Shane O’Donnell in the first half.
The six-point lead remained in place to the half time whistle when the score was 1-10 to 0-7.

The teams exchanged points five times in the third quarter and, while Clare continued to create the opportunities, it was somewhat worrying that they were failing to convert them. Three-in-a-row from Wexford had the margin down to three with 10 minutes remaining, a somewhat flattering position for Liam Dunne’s team to be in as Clare had wasted a couple of great opportunities.
Seadna Morey and Tony Kelly extended Clare’s lead to five with as many minutes remaining and, while Wexford again had the margin down to one score as the game ticked into injury time, there didn’t appear to be any great danger for the Bannermen.

Two minutes of injury time were signalled and in the second of these Jack Guiney out-jumped David McInerney to win possession from a Ciaran Kenny delivery, turned and drilled the ball low to the corner of the net past Patrick Kelly.

Just before the end of normal time Clare had made a double substitutions bringing in Fergal Lynch and Nicky O’Connell for John Conlon and Colin Ryan respectively. Ryan was back in the starting team for extra time, replacing Seadna Morey who had been introduced for the final quarter of normal time.
Two early points from Colin Ryan from a 65’ and from play put Clare back in front before a Conor McGrath break created the opening for Cathal McInerney. One-handed, he flicked the ball past advancing

Wexford goalie Mark Fanning. McInerney followed with a point and then combined with McGrath again for another goal which had Clare 3-20 to 1-18 ahead midway through extra time. There was no way back for Wexford this time and Clare went on to add four points in the second period to Wexford’s two.
Cian Dillon was again a tower of strength in defence for Clare while Brendan Bugler was always prominent. Domhnaill O’Donovan got better as the game progressed while Cathal McInerney made a huge contribution after his introduction.

Clare: Patrick Kelly; Domhnaill O’Donovan, David McInerney, Cian Dillon; Brendan Bugler, Patrick Donnellan (capt), Patrick O’Connor; Colm Galvin, Colin Ryan; John Conlon, Tony Kelly, Peter Duggan; Paudge Collins, Shane O’Donnell, Conor McGrath.
Subs: Seadna Morey for Galvin (53 minutes); Aaron Cunningham for Duggan (59 minutes); Cathal McInerney for O’Donnell (65 minutes); Fergal Lynch for Conlon (70 minutes); Nicky O’Connell for Ryan (70 minutes); Conlon for McGrath (80 minutes); Morey for O’Connor (85 minutes); Conor Ryan for Colin Ryan (88 minutes).
Scorers: Colin Ryan (0-10, 6f, 2 ‘65s); Cathal McInerney (2-1); Tony Kelly (0-5, 1f); Shane O’Donnell (1-1); John Conlon (0-3); Brendan Bugler, Paudge Collins, Seadna Morey, Aaron Cunningham (0-1 each).
Frees: 17   Wides: 21   65s: 2.
Bookings: Shane O’Donnell (18 minutes); Cian Dillon (49 minutes); David McInerney (65 minutes) Tony Kelly (69 minutes); Paudge Collins (77 minutes).

Wexford: Mark Fanning; Eoin Moore, Tomas Waters, Bobby Kenny; Ritchie Kehoe, Keith Rossiter, Ciaran Kenny; Andrew Shore, David Redmond; Paulo Morris, Eoin Quigley, Garrett Sinnott; Rory Jacob, Jack Guiney, Paudge Doran.
Subs: Gary Moore for Quigley (34 minutes); Harry Kehoe for R Kehoe (half-time); Eoin Doyle for Waters (64 minutes); PJ Nolan for H Kehoe (68 minutes); Conor McDonald for P Doran (68 minutes); Michael O’Regan for G Sinnott (75 minutes); Ciaran O’Shaughnessy for Rossiter (79 minutes).
Scorers: Jack Guiney (1-8, 0-6f); David Redmond, Paul Morris, Paudge Doran, Gary Moore (0-2 each); Garrett Sinnott, Ciaran Kenny, Michael O’Regan, Conor McDonald (0-1 each).
Frees: 19   Wides: 10.
Bookings: Tomas Waters (21 minutes); Eoin Moore (47 minutes); Garrett Sinnott (69 minutes); Bobby Kenny (77 minutes and 88 minutes).
Sent off: Bobby Kenny (88 minutes).

Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan, Cork.

 

 

Team showed ‘serious character’

Clare showed “serious character” in extra time, team manager Davy Fitzgerald said after watching his charges overcome Wexford in Saturday’s round three hurling qualifier at Thurles.

“I am delighted with the win,” he said. “The problem we had in normal time was we tried to play out the game, five points up with a few minutes to go and we tried to play it out. You can’t do that. If a team gets a point or two there is always a chance the will finish with a goal. They did in the 72nd minute. We were just trying to play it out. We went too defensive.”

“People like to say we are a defensive team, we are not. That shows what defensive is about and we are not like that. We are normally attack minded. We have more scores that most teams got this year.
“That’s what I am most disappointed about. That’s what we set out to do, I am disappointed we weren’t on the attack in the last ten minutes. If you draw at team onto you, you are in trouble. We never looked in trouble. In that whole game we were never actually in trouble. I know that they got the goal to draw but that was the only time that it looked we were in trouble,” the Sixmilebridge man said.

Asked what he said to the players before extra time he replied, “I don’t have to say much to them guys.”
“They are a tremendous bunch and I can’t say enough about them. To me they have even over achieved this year in what we have done. I can’t believe the battles they have come out of this year for a very young team. Most of this team is 22 or younger and to come into these clashes and deal with what we dealt with today reflects well.

“Wexford scored three or four points at the end. That gives them serious momentum but what did these young fellas do. They said ‘okay, we are in a battle now and we have got to go out and sort it out’. They sorted it out themselves. They knew what to do. I think we showed our class in extra time,” he said.

Looking ahead to the quarter-finals, Fitzgerald said, “we will be total outsiders but we like that, we are fighters in Clare”.

He said the Clare supporters that turned out “were absolutely fantastic”.
“They helped us get through and that’s what we need, all Clare getting behind us. We will keep going.

“The progress that these young lads have made is fantastic. The backing from the county board and our sponsor is fantastic. This doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by people working together and not knocking people. When you work together you can achieve and when you knock you won’t achieve. Support within is great.

“The genuine people that came to me since the Cork game means an awful lot, the people who came and said ‘don’t change what you are doing, stay with what you are doing, don’t mind the knockers, they are in every county’.”

Fitzgerald was also delighted with Cathal McInerney’s contribution to the game. “Cathal waited for a chance for a long time and he showed us what he can do. I am delighted that he did that. Aaron Cunningham didn’t do badly either. Different lads showed up today.”

He agreed that it will be difficult to pick the team for the next outing.  “Darach [Honan] has to come back. It’s great – Darach to come back, thank God we have that problem,” he said.
On the topic of chances being created and wasted, he said, “we will create a lot of chances because of the type of game we play. It’s not a short ball game but a varied running game.”

“We play long, we play short, that’s what we have been doing all year. We will create a lot of chances and as we got more mature we will start rectifying that problem. Isn’t it fantastic to have these opportunities. There are a lot of teams that would kill to have these opportunities, to be in this position to have that many wides. That tells its own story.”

Concluding, he said Clare, “were average in normal time. We were coping okay but we didn’t play well. We should have won the game in regular time but we didn’t.
“Our backs were to the wall but we are going into a quarter-final and I am delighted Clare hurling is where it is. All who played today contributed, the others who didn’t get a run, we will use them when we have to.”