Clare ladies fall in Meelick

Tipperary 1-11   Clare 1-8

The Clare ladies fell to a disappointing second home league defeat in Meelick last Sunday.
Gillian O’Brien’s unstoppable second-half goal was the decisive score, in a game that included three sin binnings.
Minus a number of regulars, including Sinéad Kelly, Fiona Lafferty and Ailish Considine, Clare played some good football but didn’t have the balance or depth of the Tipperary panel.
Shortly after Mairéad Morrissey pointed Tipperary ahead from a free, Niamh Keane goaled for Clare after her shot was dropped over the line by Tipperary goalkeeper Nora Noonan.
Come the interval, Tipperary had re-established their advantage and led 0-7 to 1-3, following points from Morrissey, Gillian O’Brien and Anne Marie O’Gorman.
Louise Henchy, Sinéad Sexton and Eimear Considine, with a top-class score, responded for Clare.
Considine pointed twice inside the opening three minutes of the second half to put Clare 1-5 to 0-7 ahead, before Morrissey and Áine Kelly traded points.
It was at this stage in the game that Gillian O’Brien goaled, leaving Tipperary 1-8 to 1-6 ahead. A scoreless 17 minutes followed, during which Niamh Keane and Jennifer Grant were sin binned following a scuffle.
When Eimear Considine pointed a free, won by Louise Henchy five minutes from full-time, it seemed that Clare might rescue a point. That didn’t transpire, however, as Tipperary notched successive scores from Patricia Hickey frees, leaving Tipperary 1-10 to 1-7 up.
Louise Henchy and Claire Carroll traded late points but Tipperary comfortably held onto both points.
Clare now have one point from their league matches. Their next outing will be away to Kildare on March 7.

Clare: Emma O’Driscoll (Banner); Claire Hestor (Fergus Rovers), Lorraine Kelly (Fergus Rovers), Deirdre Murphy (Clooney-Quin); Sarah Hoey (Banner), Sinéad Eustace (Coolmeen), Ciara Cleary (Coolmeen); Eimear O’Connor (Coolmeen), Marie Considine (Liscannor); Rachel Lenihan (Crusheen), Niamh Keane (Banner), Eimear Considine (Kilmihil); Áine Kelly (Fergus Rovers), Louise Henchy (Banner), Sinéad Sexton (Miltown).
Subs: Niamh Greene (Coolmeen) for Ciara Cleary, Bernie Kelly (Cooraclare) for Claire Hestor, Laurie Ryan (Banner) for Sarah Hoey and Katie Geoghegan (West Clare Gaels) for Sinéad Sexton.
Scorers: Eimear Considine (0-4, 0-2f), Niamh Keane (1-0), Louise Henchy (0-2, 0-1f), Sinéad Sexton and Áine Kelly (0-1).
Tipperary: Nora Noonan; Aoife O’Dwyer, Maeve Corcoran, Samanta Lambert; Claire Carroll, Carmel Condon, Siobhán Costolloe; Jennifer Grant, Kelly Hackett; Barbara Ryan, Anne Marie O’Gorman, Gillian O’Brien; Siobhán Crotty, Patricia Hickey, Mairéad Morrissey.
Scorers: Mairead Morrissey (0-5), Gillian O’Brien (1-2), Patricia Hickey (0-2), Anne Marie O’Gorman and Claire Carroll 0-1 each.
Referee: MJ O’Keeffe (Cork).