Ennis Town Rock end Avenue’s reign

Ennis Town Rock 4
Avenue Utd (holders) 3

This Clare Cup quarter-final at Lees Road on Sunday morning had everything the big crowd could have wished for with seven goals, three penalties and two red cards.
When the final whistle sounded, the titleholders were out of this year’s race, having lost out to Ennis rivals, Ennis Town Rock 4-3.
Four goals clear at one stage in the second half, they looked to be on the way to a runaway win but to the credit of the holders, they staged a strong fight back. However, time was not on their side and Ennis Town Rock held on for a merited win.
Indeed the winners could have had a greater winning margin had they managed to convert two penalties. In all they were awarded three spot kicks, David Reidy took the first which was saved. Stephen Hickey took the second and scored before failing to find the target with the team’s third penalty of the day.
The winners lead at the break through a David Reidy strike and were well worth this slender lead. In the second period they looked at one stage to have this game in the bag when a Steven Hickey hat trick saw them race into a commanding 4-0 lead. The defending champions refused to give up and captain David Russell led by example with two fine headed goals before Alan Roche made it 4-3 but they left it too late and crashed out of this seasons cup in what was the shock of the day.
Adding to their woes was the fact that they finished with nine players after Mattie Nugent and Colin Smith both saw red in the second half, both second yellow cards.
A number of the Ennis Town Rock squad were part of the Rock Rovers club that won the cup title back in 2008.
Ennis Town Rock: Stephen Loftus; Ethan Considine, Ronan Judge, Gary Walsh, Shane Daniels, Adrian Walsh, Daryl Eade, Eoin Glynn, Gary Browne, Stephen Hickey, David Reidy.
Sub: Dean Gardiner for Adrian Walsh.
Avenue United A: Liam Deasy; Simon Cuddy, Mattie Nugent, David Russell, Con Collins; Alan Roche, Colin Smith, David McCarthy, David Herlihy, David Smith, Mikey Mahoney.
Subs: Barry Nugent for Herlihy; Pa Wilson for Collins.

Avenue Utd B  1
Newmarket Celtic B 0

Avenue Utd B made amends somewhat for their A team’s failure to make the semi-final with a 1-0 win over Newmarket B in the last of the cup quarter finals, which was played on Sunday afternoon.
The all-important goal came with just under half an hour played. Good work by Eamonn O’Reilly and Craig McNamara down the left saw O’Reilly put in a good low cross that Darragh Kerins converted. Kerins had the ball in the net on two other occasions but each time the goals were disallowed as he was ruled to have been offside.
This winners had the better of affairs in that first half. Kerin and O’Loughlin were showing well up front while Darcy and Shane Browne were comfortable at the back dealing with whatever came their way.
It was a different story in the second half with Newmarket doing better and Avenue can thank their goalkeeper Killian Culligan for ensuring that they stayed ahead as he produced a couple of excellent saves, one in particular from Martin O’Neill while goalkeeper David Considine made a goal-line clearance in the closing minutes.
Avenue United B: Killian Culligan; Shane Browne, David Considine, Cian Darcy, Keith Dormer; Mick Shiel, Eamonn O’Reilly, Craig McNamara, Eoghan O’Loughlin, Pa Sherlock, Darragh Kerins.
Subs: Jack Walsh for Sherlock; Conor O’Brien for Darcy; John Waters for Shiel.
Newmarket Celtic B: Kevin Corbett; Conor Cusack, Chris Noonan, Derek Moynihan, Ciaran Crosby; David Barrett, Eoin Kelly, Michael Crosby, Ciarán McCoy, Chris Lake, Kevin Feehily.
Subs: Martin O’Neill for McCoy; Martin Frawley for Feehily; Ian Cusack for C Cusack.