Champs Clarinbridge prove in no mood to relinquish County title
Date Published: 11-May-2011
Clarinbridge 2-14 Sarsfields 0-13
Darren Kellyin Athenry
PORTUMNA may have kicked off their campaign determined to reclaim their crown, but Clarinbridge showed last Saturday that they are in no mood to relinquish the county title with this comfortable seven point win.
To Sarsfields’ credit, they were determined throughout the hour but Clarinbridge never looked in danger in their opening game as defending All-Ireland champions and found the crucial scores, including two second half goals, to ensure a winning start in Group C and taking other results into account, their place in the final eight should be secured before the summer recess.
Sarsfields beat St. Thomas’ (who comprehensively accounted for a Turloughmore team that drew with Castlegar) in their opening salvo but never looked like scoring much and were depended on Kerril Wade’s frees to stay in touch. In contrast, Clarinbridge picked off scores in patches when needed before killing the contest with their two strikes to the net.
Within three minutes, Clarinbridge led by 0-3 to 0-0 thanks to Barry Daly, Eoin Forde and Stephen Forde and while Wade replied with a free, Mark Kerins sent over a hat trick of placed balls to give the Bridge a five point lead. But they didn’t score again for seven minutes as the New Inn/Bullaun outfit came back into the game.
Wade tapped over three more frees but their two chances in the 12th and 13th minutes gave them their best chances of taking this game to their opponents. The first was started by Kevin Hynes who fed Niall Quinn and he picked out Wade just outside the area before the Clarinbridge defence took him down to concede the 20 metre free.
While Wade scored from this, he was involved in the second attack with Ivan Kenny as Liam Donoghue and Paul Callanan had to produce two crucial stops to avoid a goal.
Alan Kerins made it 0-7 to 0-4 in the 18th minute before Wade reduced the deficit to two with his fifth free. Clarinbridge finished the half strongly with four more unanswered points – Eoin Forde, a Mark Kerins free, Daly and Kerins again from play allowed the champions a six point interval lead.
The opening exchanges of the second half would be important as Sarsfields needed to use the breeze but Mark Kerins was on the end of a move involving David Forde and Alan Kerins to make it 0-12 to 0-5 in the 37th minute. Sarsfields eventually managed their first score from play 60 seconds later when Ian Skehill split the posts while another Wade free three minutes afterwards put five between the teams.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.