Clare’s All-Ireland Minor Football Championship campaign has come to an end, after they were beaten by Dublin in today’s Quarter-Final in Portlaoise.
Seven points separated the sides at the full-time whistle, but that doesn’t tell the full story of a game which saw Clare perform very well in the first half in particular.
It was Dublin who started strongest, with Ross McGarry scoring an early goal to add onto a point from Karl Lynch Bisset.
However, Clare fought back and put in a tremendous performance. They scored five straight points from Gavin Cooney (two frees), Dermot Coughlan (two points, one of them a free) and Gearoid Cahill.
This put them into the lead, but McGarry hit two points to put the Dubs back in front.
At half-time it was still very much in the balance, with Clare trailing 0-5 to 1-3.
Clare could have taken the lead early in the second half – Ross Phelan missed a goal chance – but Cooney levelled matters with another point.
However, Dublin then struck a killer blow when a speculative effort from distance from James Doran evaded all of the Clare defence and ended up in the Banner net.
Now, Dublin were in front by three but this lead was quickly extended further as they pulled away with a series of points and at one stage led by ten.
Clare closed the gap somewhat with Ross O’Doherty and Coughlan among the scorers, but they eventually lost out on a final scoreline of 2-11 to 0-10.