Clare 0-20 Cork 2-11
CLARE HAVE REACHED the Waterford Crystal Cup final after a 0-20 to 2-11 victory over Cork in Sixmilebridge.
There was a chaotic start to evening after extraordinary traffic on the N18 northbound resulted in players from both sides arriving late and forced the throw-in to be put back 45 minutes.
Proceedings did eventually get underway at 8.30pm and Clare took a 0-10 to 0-7 lead into the half-time break.
Patrick Horgan was to the fore for Cork in the scoring stakes in the first-half while Nicky O’Connell and Shane O’Donnell lead the way for the Banner.
Two goals in the second half from substitute Adrian Mannix pulled the Rebels level with 15 minutes remaining but Clare added five more scores before the end to prevail with Colin Ryan and Cathal O’Connell grabbing the late points that sealed Clare’s success.
The Banner, last year’s runners-up, will now face the winners of Sunday’s clash between Tipperary and Limerick IT, who are also managed by Davy Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile Cork selector Kieran Kingston spoke after the game about the decision not to include goalkeeper Donal Og Cusack in the panel for this year’s league.
“You’ll always have challenges and have questions asked about whether you were right or wrong about guys, or whether it was during a game, ‘You should have brought this fella on’ or ‘You should have brought that guy off’.
“As Jimmy (Barry-Murphy) said the other night on the radio, and as we’ve said all along, we’re open, at this stage in Cork hurling we can’t be opening or closing doors on anybody.”
Scorers for Clare: Colin Ryan 0-8 (0-6f), Nicky O’Connell 0-6 (0-5f), Podge Collins, Shane O’Donnell 0-2 each, Cathal O’Connell, Jonathan Clancy 0-1 each.
Scorers for Cork: Adrian Mannix 2-1, Patrick Horgan 0-4 (0-3f), Cormac Murphy 0-2, Cian McCarthy, Daire Lordan, Rob O’Shea, Jamien Coughlan 0-1 each.
CLARE: Donal Tuohy; Domhnall O’Donovan, Cillian Duggan, Brian O’Connell; Brendan Bugler, Pat Donnellan, Patrick O’Connor; Nicky O’Connell, Seadna Morey; Colin Ryan, Podge Collins, Enda Barret; Shane O’Donnell, Alan O’Neill, Jonathan Clancy.
Subs: David McInerney for B O’Connell (45), Tony Kelly for Collins, Mark Flaherty for O’Neill, Cathal O’Connell for Clancy (all 55), David O’Halloran for O’Donnell (66).
CORK: Anthony Nash; James O’Donovan, Mark Ellis, Pat O’Sullivan; Michael Walsh, Christopher Joyce, Stephen White; David Pyne, Rob O’Shea; Brian Corry, Daire Lordan, Cormac Murphy; William McCarthy, Patrick Horgan, Jamie Coughlan.
Subs: Adrian Mannix for W McCarthy (33), Cian McCarthy for Lordan (half-time), Daniel Kearney for Pyne (38), Stephen Moylan for Corry (58).
Referee: Johnny Ryan (Tipperary).
Look for Thunder to play Kiwi rookie Stephen Adams many more minutes and be competitive next time…
As much as I would love to see the thunder win the series, methinks the spurs have way too much on the bench. Pops a top top coach and with the heat missing something(maybe the hunger for a third consecitive title)i think the spurs are the team to beat. I agree adams will offer a bit but is inexperienced at this level,that said definitely has a future in nba.