All Ireland Football Round 4A Qualifier

Clare 2-12 Roscommon 1-9

By Declan Rooney at Pearse Stadium

Clare stunned Roscommon to earn a spot in the All-Ireland quarter-final as goals from David Tubridy and Jamie Malone rounded off a brilliant team display at Pearse Stadium.

Thirteen-man Roscommon had no answer for Clare’s pace and power and the sendings off of Sean Mullooly and David Murray meant their challenge fizzled out, six days on from their loss in the replayed Connacht final.

Down by five at the break, Roscommon were handed a chance to comeback when Cathal O’Connor was sent off in the 37th minute, but instead the Banner men showed great heart as six points from Eoin Cleary gave Clare victory.

Roscommon got off to a good start in Salthill and a free from Ciaran Murtagh and Enda Smith’s score from play saw them 0-2 to 0-0 ahead after four minutes.

After that early Roscommon burst, the remainder of the opening half was dominated by Clare.

At midfield Gary Brennan was once again the driving force behind his team and after his fifth-minute point got the Banner men on the board, they quickly kicked on into the lead when David Tubridy goaled.

It was the pace of Martin McMahon down the left wing that opened up the Roscommon defence, and when Jamie Malone unselfishly found Tubridy, the full-forward goaled on the turn for a 1-1 to 0-2 lead.

With Dean Ryan and Sean Collins causing huge problems with their surging runs from deep Roscommon struggled to cope with Clare’s high tempo game, but they did well to peg them back on a couple of occasions as Ciaran Murtagh found the target, before full-back Sean Mullooly drilled over a great score for the Connacht finalists.

Instead of being lifted by that score, Roscommon retreated into defence and were then hit for an unanswered 1-3 from Colm Collins’ side. The second goal came from another flowing move that saw Sean Collins pick out Keelan Sexton with an accurate foot-pass, before Cleary passed to Jamie Malone who finished well.

Niall Kilroy’s free brought a 17-minute scoreless spell to an end for Roscommon, which meant they trailed by 2-6 to 0-7 at the interval, but Roscommon’s hopes to a boost two minutes after the restart when Cathal O’Connor was sent off from a high tackle on Niall Daly.

Again, when the lift came for Roscommon there was no real response from the Connacht side. Instead Cleary kicked the first point of the half for Clare to stretch the lead, before two yellow cards in the space of eight minutes meant Sean Mullooly was also sent off.

Clare looked like certain winners at that points, but 16 minutes from time Enda Smith goaled for Roscommon to put just three points between the sides.

Diarmuid Murtagh’s free cut that lead to two points, but at the other end Cleary added two more points as Clare held on.

**Scorers for Clare: **E Cleary 0-6 (2fs, 1’45), D Tubridy 1-2 (1f), J Malone 1-0, D Ryan 0-1, G Brennan 0-1, S McGrath 0-1, S Malone 0-1.

**Scorers for Roscommon: **E Smith 1-1, C Murtagh 0-3 (3fs), D Murtagh 0-1 (1f), S Mullooly 0-1, N Kilroy 0-1 (1f), D Shine 0-1 (1f), C Devaney 0-1.

Clare: J Hayes; S Hickey, K Harnett, M McMahon; C O’Dea, G Kelly, D Ryan; G Brennan (c), C O’Connor; J Malone, S Collins, P Lillis; E Cleary, D Tubridy, K Sexton.

Subs: P Collins for Tubridy (47), S McGrath for Lillis (56), E Coughlan for Sexton (60), S Malone for Collins (74), P Burke for Cleary (75), D Burke for J Malone (76).

Roscommon: D O’Malley; S McDermott, S Mullooly, N McInerney; J McManus, N Daly, D Murray; C Compton, D Keenan; U Harney, N Kilroy, E Smith; C Cregg, D Shine, C Murtagh (c).

Subs: T Corcoran for Compton (32), K Higgins for Harney (h-t), C Connolly for C Murtagh (h-t), D Murtagh for C Cregg (42), C Devaney for Higgins (46 BC), F Cregg for Shine (67).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).