Peter O’Connell
Dublin AUL 2 Clare League 0
ALTHOUGH the Clare League held a man advantage for almost an hour of Sunday’s Oscar Traynor final in Dublin, two second half goals won it for the home team.
AUL’s Stewart Glynn was red carded in the 32nd minute of the first half following a tackle on Clare’s Alan Kelly. The game was goalless at that stage and remained so at half time. Clare goalkeeper John Mulready made several excellent first half saves and also did well in the second half.
He was though rather unluckily caught out for AUL’s first goal, which was netted by right back Damien Cuffe seven minutes into the second period. The defender appeared to be trying to cross the ball but somehow the ball spun over a wrong footed Mulready and into the Clare net.
The 10 men of the AUL were buoyed by this and played some good stuff thereafter. They sealed the result nine minutes from time when left back Mark Mooney goaled from a yard after excellent work by Dean Carpenter.
What will disappoint Clare most is the fact that they didn’t play to their capability. The fluency of their play, evident in previous rounds, was not on show in north Dublin.
On an afternoon when most of the Clare players didn’t perform, John Mulready excelled in goals, while Eoin O’Brien was composed at centre-half and tried to use the ball intelligently.
Eoin Hayes looked dangerous in the opening half but wasn’t as involved as Clare needed thereafter.
Clare: John Mulready; Matty Nugent, Darren Cullinan, Darren Murphy, Eoin O’Brien, Alan Kelly, Colin Smyth, Stephen Kelly, Stephen Hickey, David McCarthy (c), Eoin Hayes.
Subs: Alan Brigdale for Alan Kelly (inj), Darryl Eade for Stephen Hickey, Paddy O’Malley for David McCarthy.
AUL: Mark Hatton; Damien Cuffe, Mark Mooney, Conor Dillon, Paddy Brophy, Damien Joyce, Alan Talbot, John Meleady (c), Mark Towney, Stuart Glynn, Dean Carpenter.
Subs: Gavin McDermott for Damien Cuffe, Dean Gibbons for Damien Joyce, Arron Humphries for Alan Talbot.
Referee: Oliver Falsey.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.