Shock victory for determined Tubber

A HIGHLY motivated and determined Tubber outfit caused a major shock in the senior hurling championship when they defeated the title-holders Cratloe at Cusack Park on Saturday evening.

This was a win that the North Clare outfit fully deserved as the dominated from the start. They led by eight points at the half-way point and while Cratloe stepped up a gear on the resumption, they failed to break Tubber’s dominance. The game’s only goal came in the second minute of injury time and only served to give a somewhat flattering look to the scoreline.
In the past two years, Tubber came agonisingly close to beating Cratloe in the senior hurling championship but they lost out narrowly on each occasion. The celebrations by their players and mentors at the end of Saturday’s contest clearly showed how much this win meant to them.
It is unlikely, however, that the win will keep them in the title race, They have to beat Inagh-Kilnamona in their final outing and hope that, in the meantime, Inagh-Kilnamona will have beaten Sixmilebridge who must also be deprived of a win against Wolfe Tones in their final game. Should all these results materialise, it will then be down to scoring difference to decide who will go through.
Tubber captain Clive Earley gave his side the lead after just five seconds and like scores followed from Shane O’Connor and David O’Donoghue in the opening minute. A further 13 minutes went by before the next score, a Patrick O’Connor point from an 80m free. In between, his team had wasted a number of good scoring opportunities. A Barry O’Connor point made it 0-5 to 0-0 in the winner’s favour at the end of the opening quarter.
A further two minutes went by before Conor McGrath opened Cratloe’s account but two long-range frees by Patrick O’Connor and one from play from Dara O’Connor left it at 0-8 to 0-1 with eight minutes remaining in the half. McGrath had Cratloe’s first score from play but Tubber continued to dominate and further efforts from O’Donoghue and Eamonn  Taaffe (free) left it 0-10 to 0-2 at half-time. Just before the break Cratloe lost Gearóid Ryan with a leg injury.
There was a bit more urgency about their play when the second half got underway and they had early points from Ogie Murphy and Seán Collins before Patrick O’Connor landed his fourth of the evening when converting an 85m free.
Conor Ryan and Seán Chaplin had Cratloe points but a David O’Donoghue effort left it 0-12 to 0-6 at the three-quarter stage. The margin was still the same five minutes later after Seán Chaplin and Eamonn Taaffe had exchanged points. Then Cratloe hit for three in-a-row to close the gap to three with seven minutes still to play. Tubber, however, refused to budge and Shane O’Connor pointed with four to play and this score clearly boosted the winners. It took a good save from Seán Hawes two minutes later to deny Tubber a goal but the margin was out to five points when Dara O’Connor pointed in the final minute of normal time.
The goal that Cratloe had been chasing came in the second minute of injury time when Barry Gleeson applied the finish after good work by Seán Collins and Conor McGrath. It was too late to prevent them from suffering their first defeat of this campaign.
Patrick O’Connor, Conor and Mark Earley stood out in the winner’s defence while Paul Waters did well between the posts. Elsewhere Barry O’Connor, David O’Donoghue and Clive Earley did well.
Cratloe struggled in a number of positions but Barry Duggan, Liam Markham, Ogie Murphy and Conor McGrath tried hard throughout.

Tubber: Paul Waters; Mark Earley, Justin McMahon, John O’Connor; Tommy Lee, Conor Earley, Patrick O’Connor; Barry O’Connor, Clive Earley; Dara O’Connor, Shane O’Connor, Eamonn Taaffe; David O’Donoghue, Jack Neylon, Gerard O’Connor.
Subs: Fergal O’Grady for J O’Connor (half-time); Nigel O’Donoghue for Ger O’Connor (55 minutes).
Scorers: Patrick O’Connor (0-4), all frees; David O’Donoghue (0-3); Dara O’Connor, Eamonn Taaffe (frees); Shane O’Connor (0-2) each; Barry O’Connor, Clive Earley (0-1) each.
Frees for: 10; wides: 10.
Bookings: Patrick O’Connor (16 minutes); Tommy Lee (29 minutes); Justin McMahon (23 minutes).
“We are extremely hurt and disappointed with everyone involved in a fixture like this. Maybe it took something like this to get the performance,” Pat O’Connor, Tubber manager.

Cratloe: Seán Hawes; Philip Gleeson, Barry Duggan, David Ryan; Cathal McInerney, Michael Hawes, Liam Markham; Ogie Murphy, Seán Chaplin; Seán Collins, James Enright, Damian Browne; Conor McGrath, Conor Ryan, Gearoid Ryan.
Subs: Barry Gleeson for Gearóid Ryan (inj, 27 minutes) Aidan Browne for Enright (44 minutes).
Scorers: Conor McGrath (0-3, 2f); Barry Gleeson (1-0), Seán Chaplin, Conor Ryan, Seán Collins (0-2 each), Ogie Murphy (0-1).
Frees for: 10; wides: 16.
Bookings: None.
“Our display didn’t deserve anything other than that result. Our first-half display wasn’t good. There was only one team that wanted to win it. Tubber were really up for the game and deserved to win it,” Mike Deegan, Cratloe.
Referee: Ger Hoey, Killanena.

Vital tie for the ’Bridge and Inagh-Kilnamona
FIRST-round results were such that the meeting of Sixmilebridge and Inagh-Kilnamona was always going to be an important one in the race for qualification from Group 2 in the senior hurling championship.
Last week’s win by Tubber over holders, Cratloe, has added to the interest in this Saturday’s game at Cusack Park.
A win for Sixmilebridge will confirm that the ’Bridge and Cratloe are safely into the quarter-finals irrespective of the results in the final round of games.
However, a win for Inagh-Kilnamona this week will open up all sorts of possibilities for all of the other teams in the group. Firstly, it will put the combination side in pole position to qualify as their final game will be against Tubber.
An Inagh-Kilnamona win this week will keep Tubber and Wolfe Tones’ hopes of progress alive but for them to get back into contention, they will then need to win their final-round games against Inagh-Kilnamona and Sixmilebridge respectively.
If all that was to materialise, it would mean that Sixmilebridge will be out of the title race and it would leave Tubber, Wolfe Tones and Inagh-Kilnamona level on points with scoring difference required to establish who would qualify from the group along with Cratloe.
Not many would be prepared to bet on such an eventuality, however, and, for now, nobody is looking beyond this Saturday’s game.
It will mark Fergie O’Loughlin’s first game in charge of Inagh-Kilnamona and it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, he will make to the side which lost to Cratloe. It is a must-win game for the side and they will be looking to the experience of Tony Carmody, Ronan O’Looney, Cathal Lafferty and David Hegarty to blend in with county minor, Niall Arthur, along with Patrick Kelly and Conor Tierney. Eamonn Glynn will again be an absentee due to a shoulder injury.
On recent form, Sixmilebridge will wear the favourites’ tag. They were most impressive when beating Tubber last time out and when qualifying for the Clare Champion Cup final with a convincing win over Smith O’Brien’s last week.
Tadhg Keogh, Aidan Quilligan, Shane Golden, Caimin and Danny Morey and team captain Niall Gilligan have all been in top form and they will want to see their side safely through to the quarter-finals. While they are likely to get a stern examination from Inagh-Kilnamona, recent form suggests that, come Saturday evening, Sixmilebridge will still be unbeaten in the race for this year’s title.
With full points from three outings, Newmarket will be keen to complete their league programme of games in the championship with another win when they take on Tulla at Cusack Park on Sunday.
The Blues have had difficulty against Tulla in recent years but their form this year suggests that they will be too strong for their East Clare opponents who must win if they are to have any chance of making the play-offs.
Newmarket have a number of injury problems ahead of this outing and they will definitely be without Shane O’Brien senior who suffered a broken hand in their last championship outing, which was against Smith O’Brien’s. There are fitness concerns about a number of their players but a final decision on their fitness won’t be made until nearer match time.
That said, with Stephen Kelly, Pádraig Kilmartin, the Barrett brothers, Paudie Collins, Colin Ryan and Eoin Hayes in their line-up, they should be strong enough to record another win.
Tulla, despite having lost both their championship outings to date to O’Callaghan’s Mills and Smith O’Brien’s, have produced some good performances in the latter stages of the league to ensure their Division 1 status and manager Jim McInerney will be hoping that his charges will bring that form to the championship table on Sunday.
Brian Lynch, Philip Brennan and the Quinn brothers will be hoping to give their side an edge in this one but it will take a huge effort to upset the Blues. The odds are that Tulla’s hopes of championship glory will be dashed on Sunday.