Footballers lose out to slicker Tipperary

Tipperary 1-12   Clare 0-7

WITH two Munster minor titles and one All-Ireland minor crown to their credit in the past two years, Tipperary went into Wednesday’s Munster U-21 semi-final as hot favourites, a rating they justified with a comfortable win over Clare, who struggled in a number of areas.
The home side were slicker in the key areas before an attendance of 674 and their senior players, particularly Michael Quinlivan and Liam McGrath, who have been influential in the Premier side’s progress in Division 4 of the national league, troubled Clare regularly.

From an early stage, Tipperary, who won this title in 2010 for the first time, were sharper around the middle third of the field and won the majority of the possession in this area, which resulted in a plentiful supply of ball to the forwards and caused the Clare defence a number of problems.

In the final, they will play Cork, who defeated Limerick in the other semi-final.

Miltown’s Darragh McDonagh cried off before the game and this led to a re-shuffle of the Clare side, which included inter-county hurler Podge Collins at centre-forward.

Throughout the tie, the Clare forwards struggled and rarely threatened the home side’s backline.

McGrath opened the scoring in the first minute, a score that was cancelled out by a Cathal Duggan effort two minutes later but that was as close as Clare got. Two McGrath efforts followed, before Steven O’Brien came through from midfield to put four between the teams.

Duggan and McGrath swapped scores before Tipperary centre-back Seamus Kennedy came up to kick a good Tipperary point.

Two more McGrath scores pushed the home side 0-8 to 0-3 in front, with five minutes remaining in the half. Two minutes from the break, Clare’s position was worsened after Michael Quinlivan found the net.

Clare had the opening score of the second half when Conor Cleary converted a free but Tipperary replied with a like score from their top marksman, McGrath.

Indeed, this was the story of the game as Tipperary replied with a score after each of Clare’s points.

Each side had two points in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Twelve scoreless minutes followed before the winners hit a brace.

The final score of the game came five minutes from the final whistle, when Clare substitute Eoin Cleary kicked an impressive score.

Cleary was a big loss to the Banner side, having been ruled out through injury.

Darren Sexton made a number of good stops in the Clare goal, which ensured that Tipperary’s winning margin wasn’t greater. Team captain Seanie Malone worked hard in defence throughout, as did Craig O’Brien, while Jamie Malone did well in attack, along with Cathal Duggan but they lacked support.

Tipperary: Evan Comerford; Paddy Dalton, Niall O’Sullivan, Conor O’Sullivan; Niall O’Meara, Seamus Kennedy, Dylan Fitzell; Steven O’Brien, Ian Fahey; Bill Maher, Liam Treacy, Donagh Leahy; Liam McGrath, Michael Quinlivan, Shane Leahy.
Subs: Michael O’Sullivan for N O’Meara (42 mins), Billy Hewitt for Treacy (50 mins), Jason Lonergan for B Maher (50 mins), Jonathon Ryan for Fahey (55 mins) and John O’Callaghan for Fitzell (55 mins).
Scorers: Liam McGrath (0-8), Michael Quinlivan (1-0), Seamus Kennedy (0-2), Billy Hewitt and Steven O’Brien (0-1 each).
Clare: Darragh Sexton (Kilmurry-Ibrickane); Anthony Downes (Kilmihil), Stan Lineen (Kilmihil), Conor Brennan (Éire Óg); Eoin Brew (O’Curry’s), Seanie Malone (Miltown, St Joseph’s, captain), Craig O’Brien (Wolfe Tones); Gearóid Looney (Cooraclare), Ciarán Devitt (Ennistymon); Darragh Bolton (Kilrush), Podge Collins (Cratloe), Conor Cleary (Miltown, St Joseph’s); Cathal Duggan (St Joseph’s), Jamie Malone (Corofin), Seamus Lynch (Kilmurry-Ibrickane).
Subs: William Flynn (Wolfe Tones) for Downes, Eoin Cleary (Miltown St Joseph’s) for Lynch (both 46 mins), Dale Masterson (St Breckan’s) for Devitt (48 mins), Michael O’Neill (Lissycasey) for Collins (52 mins) and Liam Corry (Éire Óg) for Bolton (55 mins).
Scorers: Cathal Duggan (0-3, 2f), Jamie Malone (0-2), Conor Cleary (free) and Eoin Cleary (0-1 each).
Referee: Richard Moloney, Limerick.