Allianz Football League Division 2 South Round 2 Clare 1-13 Kildare 0-13 at Newbridge ONCE again Newbridge brings drama as Clare with a superb effort over 70 minutes using their substitutes brilliantly and with Eoin Cleary coming up with pressure cooker points Clare maintained a winning record in this year’s Allianz league, reports Michael O’Connor. Had Clare managed just a share of the spoils they would have made the journey home very disappointed as they were without the better side and face into Cork in Cusack Park with everything to play for. At the end of the first quarter Clare were (0-6) to (0-3) in arrears after a early positive start by Clare was matched by Kildare capitalising on frees conceded by the Clare rearguard. The Banner men at times in the first 15 minutes met a strong disciplined Kildare rearguard who forced Clare into errors. There was a flurry of scores in the first ten minutes with successful efforts …
Read More »It’s Newbridge or nowhere for Clare’s next league encounter
Allianz Football League Division 2 South Round 2 Kildare v Clare at St Conleth’s Park Newbridge, Sunday 2pm (Fergal Kelly, Longford) It’s Newbridge or nowhere for Clare this Sunday as fresh from the timely jolt of a comprehensive opening win over Laois, Colm Collins’ side are gunning to finally break their Lilywhite hoodoo. Successive National League defeats at the Kildare venue in 2016, ’17 and ’19 by an average margin of four points have created an unwanted pattern that they will be eager to redress this time around. After all, the carrot for the winners is a guaranteed place in the last four of Division 2 while for the hosts, a victory would also clinch top spot in the group that includes a semi-final showdown with the runners-up in the Northern half of the divide. There were eerie similarities between Clare and Kildare’s first round successes as both had impressive debutants in Daniel Walsh and Alex Beirne who could well …
Read More »Victory is imperative to launch compact campaign
Allianz Football League Division 2 South Round 1 Clare v Laois at Cusack Park Ennis, Sunday 4pm (Sean Lonergan, Tipperary) THE prevailing narrative when it comes to Division 2 has always been its ultra competitiveness and relative uncertainty as to which teams are elevated and evicted from the division on any given year. That script is emphasised when it comes to assessing Clare as having been touted as relegation candidates (nationally at least) every year since winning Division 3 in 2016, they have managed to defy those odds and could have even soared to the top flight had results gone their way last year. Indeed, in two-thirds of Clare’s league matches over the past three seasons, only a kick of a ball has separated the sides and in the context of an even smaller pool this time around, two of those were minimum results came in 2020 against Kildare (0-11 to 0-10 win), and Laois (1-12 to 1-11 loss), both …
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