Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group B

CLARE 1-27 CARLOW 0-14

By Seamus Hayes at Cusack Park

Clare had their expected comfortable win over Carlow in this opening round tie played in front of 2,283 patrons at Cusack Park in Ennis.

Carlow led by the odd point in three after two minutes when Shane O’Donnell struck for the game’s only goal and Clare were never behind after this.

Six unanswered points in as many minutes had the home side 1-7 to 0-4 ahead by the twelfth minute and they lend this margin to the interval when the score was 1-12 to 0-9.

The winners had the opening three points of the second half and from here on they were very much in control, outscoring the visitors in the second half on a 0-15 to 0-5 tally.

The visitors finished the game with fourteen men after midfielder Edward Byrne was dismissed on a straight red card with ten minutes remaining.

Manager Brian Lohan was, understandably, delighted with the result. “We were always expected to win that game here at home. We are happy with the way the lads played. We got the goal from Shane early. Our movement was pretty good and we got to see a number of players”, the All Ireland wining full back from 1995 and 1997 said.

He acknowledged that next week’s clash with Wexford at the latter’s venue “is a big game. They had a good win last evening and they have won the Leinster league. It’s a tough place to go”.

Scorers for Clare: Tony Kelly 0-12 (7fs), Shane O’Donnell 1-1, John Conlon 0-3 (1f), Ryan Taylor, Aidan McCarthy, David Fitzgerald 0-2 each, Pat O’Connor, David McInerney, Ian Galvin, David Reidy, Domhnaill McMahon 0-1 each.

Scorers for Carlow; Martin Kavanagh 0-7 (7fs), Chris Nolan 0-3 (1f), John Michael Nolan 0-2, Diarmuid Byrne (f) Richard Coady 0-1 each.

CLARE: Donal Tuohy; Jack Browne, Conor Cleary, Eoin Quirke; Aidan McCarthy, Pat O’Connor, Stephen O’Halloran; David McInerney, Tony Kelly; Ian Galvin, David Fitzgerald, David Reidy; Ryan Taylor, John Conlon(Capt), Shane O’Donnell.

Subs: Domhnaill McMahon for Galvin (55), Liam Corry for Quirke (57), Seadna Morey for Reidy (63), Colin Guilfoyle for O’Donnell (64), Niall Deasy for Fitzgerald (65).

CARLOW; Damian Jordan; Ross Smithers, Paul Doyle, Michael Doyle; Kevin McDonald, David English, Diarmuid Byrne; Richard Coady, Edward Byrne; John Michael Nolan, Martin Kavanagh, Jon Nolan; Aaron Amond, Paul Coady, Chris Nolan

Sub: Sean Whelan for D. Byrne (HT), Ted Joyce for Amond (53), Michael Malone for P. Coady (64), Cathal Tracey for John M. Nolan (65), Jack Kavanagh for M. Kavanagh inj. (70)

REFEREE: Liam Gordon (Galway).