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18 March 2009
Clooney/Quin v Clonlara matches have a tendency to be close and exciting affairs. Last Saturday in Hennessey Park when our U-14 hurlers met theirs in the Feile quarter-final, the match certainly lived up to its billing................
The home side played towards the Ball Alley in the first half with the wind to their backs. Conceding the 1st point of the match to the visitors in the very 1st minute was not part of the plan. However, the reply was brisk with a pointed free from Luke Harrisson restoring parity. David O'Brien raised a white flag from play before Paul Leamy had the home side 2 points up from a 13th minute free. Clonlara reduced the deficit to a point before Ryan Taylor finished off a fine move by firing over the bar after 19 minutes. Twice in the 2nd quarter the home team were denied goals by superb Clonlara defending, but the sustained pressure by the Clooney/Quin lads yielded frees which Luke Harrisson took full advantage of with points in the 23rd and 25th minute.
This left the half-time score: Clooney/Quin 0.6 Clonlara 0.2.
The 2nd half began well for Clooney/Quin with an Aaron Duggan point in the 2nd minute. This was cancelled out by the visitors 2 minutes later. The dynamic Ryan Taylor pointed in the 6th minute before Colin Haugh gave the home side a 6 point lead in the 7th. Things started to look good - but not for long! Within a minute the game was back in the melting pot when Clonlara scored the 1st goal of the game. They went on to add 2 more points to leave just the minimum between the teams at the 3/4 stage.
Clooney/Quin responded admirably with Ryan Taylor shooting his 3rd point. The visitors then put themselves in sight of victory when they hit a goal and a point in a 60-second spell to take a 2 point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Credit to our lads who were certainly up for the challenge and went after the scores to get themselves to the semi-final. It looked as if they were about to achieve their goal when Sean Shanahan found the back of the Clonlara net with 2 minutes to go.
Unfortunately for the boys in green and red, there was another score left in the game. As the East Clare side staged one last attack they managed to get the ball over the line for their 3rd goal and the last score of the match.
So, hard luck on the home team but great credit to them for the part they played in a very exciting match where all the lads tried their best.
A big thank you to the ground staff who had the pitch in great shape and to Brian O'Neill for operating the scoreboard.
Final Score: Clooney/Quin 1.10 Clonlara 3.6
Our Scorers: Luke Harrisson 0.3, Ryan Taylor 0.3, Sean Shanahan 1.0, David O'Brien 0.1, Aaron Duggan 0.1, Colin Haugh 0.1
