Newmarket Celtic A 3 Avenue United A 2 (after extra time) Newmarket are the Clare soccer cup champions for the seventh successive year but for much of this evening’s final at Frank Healy Park in Doora it looked as if they would have to settle for the runners up spot. In the end, however, the experience that Newmarket have gained in recent seasons saw them stage a tremendous rally and an injury time goal levelled the tie at 2-2 and forced extra time. The game was in the last minute of the extra period and fans were asking when the replay was likely when the champions struck for the winner, a score which sparked off great celebrations amongst their loyal fans Two Mark Roche goals in a three minute spell shortly before half time gave Avenue United a 2-0 interval advantage and this was still the position at the three quarter stage. Celtic had introduced Colin Ryan and Colin Smyth, …
Read More »Avenue United claim youths cup title
Avenue United 5 St. Pats 2 Avenue United were crowned Clare youths cup soccer champions at Frank Healy park this Friday evening when they recorded a 5-2 victory over St. Pats The win completed a particularly successful week for Gavin Cooney who scored two goals for the winners on his way to picking up the man of the match award just forty eight hours after helping the Clare minor footballers qualify for the Provincial semi-final when he was their top scorer with a haul of 0-5 in their win over Tipperary. Cooney’s involvement in this evenings cup final surprised St.Pats followers as they lined out without four members of the Clare minor football squad who are part of their panel. The minor footballers trained on Friday evening. The game was forty minutes old before the opening goal was registered and it was St. Pats who took the lead when Danny Clancy drilled the ball low to the corner of the …
Read More »Avenue send Newmarket crashing out of Munster
Newmarket Celtic 1 Avenue United 1 (after extra time) Avenue won 3-1 on penalties Beaten finalists last season, Newmarket Celtic are out of the Munster junior cup at the first hurdle this year. At McDonough Park in Newmarket this Sunday morning, they had to give best to Avenue United who proved too strong in a penalty shoot out after the teams had endedon level terms at 1-1. By their own standards, the past couple of seasons have been disappointing for Avenue United but they were clearly determined to do well in this one and from the word go they took the game to the favourites. With Dylan Casey in their line up having returned to his home club in midweek after a a few seasons in England, they created the greater number of chances in the opening half. After Davy O’Halloran had seen his effort narrowily miss the target, Newmarket launched a counter attack which ended with the awarding …
Read More »Huge weekend for Clare soccer
This Saturday and Sunday will, arguably, be the biggest weekend in the history of Clare soccer, as both the county youths and junior sides seek to qualify for the national finals of their respective competitions. The Colm Ryan-managed youths team travels to play Cork on Saturday (kick-off at 3pm) while, 22 hours later, the juniors, managed by Donie Garrihy, will entertain Donegal in the Oscar Traynor semi-final (kick-off at 1pm) at the County Grounds in Doora. While the juniors have been knocking on the door of Oscar Traynor success in recent years, it’s been quite a while since the youths were involved at this stage of the competition. Indeed, Clare struggled to put a team together at this level on occasions in the past decade. A storming second-half performance saw the youths record a comfortable 5-2 win over Waterford in the quarter-final two weeks ago. In that tie, the combination of Kieran Mahoney, Aidan Kennedy and Adam Gilbert caused massive …
Read More »Nine man Avenue earn a share of the spoils
By Seamus Hayes Avenue United A 0 Bridge United A 0 Despite having two players sent off, Avenue United A earned a share of the points with Bridge United when the sides clashed in this premier league tie at Roslevan on Sunday afternoon. The result means that Bridge United remain in second place with Avenue two points adrift in third spot. Leaders Newmarket Celtic A moved further ahead when they scored another big win over Lifford at McDonagh park and they are now odds on to win the title. Despite the fact that there were no goals, there were plenty of talking points when Avenue and Bridge United clashed. Ten minutes into the game the home side were reduced to ten men when Paddy O’Malley was dismissed by referee James Ferns. Bridge played with the aid of the strong wind in the first half but an Avenue defence, well marshalled by Eamonn O’Reilly, remained in control. As half time approached, …
Read More »Ennis Town end Avenue’s cup hopes
By Seamus Hayes The Clare soccer cup final on May 31 will be between Newmarket Celtic A and Ennis Town A. Newmarket justified favouritism when scoring a 4-2 win over surprise packets West Clare at the County grounds on Sunday morning. They dominated the opening half and led 4-0 at the break thanks to goals from Stephen Kelly, Eoin O’Brien, Eoin Hayes and Paudie Hayes. Two minutes into the second half they should have extended their lead when they were awarded a penalty but team captain Michael Crosby saw his effort rebound off the crossbar. West Clare were given a lifeline midway through the half when Jason Russell converted a penalty after he was fouled and twelve minutes from time he found the net again, this time from a free. However, that was as close as they got as the more experienced Newmarket held control for the remaining time to record a merited victory. On Saturday evening Ennis Town A …
Read More »