Cork far too strong for Clare

Cork 0-23 Clare 0-8

Cork with four seniors in their ranks, Micheál McSweeney, Ronan O’Toole, Ryan Harkin and Don O’Driscoll, ran out easy winners in the Munster U-21 football quarter final played at Cooraclare last night. Having established a five point lead at half time, the visitored kicked on in the second period and finally ran out fourteen point victors.

Clare senior player Keelan Sexton got the night’s opening score a left footed point but this white flag was matched almost immediately when Cork’s Sean O’Donoghue converted a twenty meter free level matters.

Brian Coakley gave the visitors the lead after five minutes with another free before Sexton and O’Donoghue exchanged scores once more by the eleventh. Cork then hit five points without reply to open up a scoring gap that was never again to be breached.

Clare trailed by 0-10 to 0-5 and faced an uphill battle. After the re-start they managed another score through Jack O’Dea but it was as close as they got to a rampant Cork outfit. By the thirty-ninth, the scoreboard read 0-13 to 0-7 and from there on in, the outcome was never in doubt.

Nine more unanswered scores came their way before Clare's Sexton and sub Stephen Sherlock exchanged points in injury time. Cork: A Casey; D Quinn, J Mullins, M McSweeney (0-1); K Flahive, S Cronin, K Histon; S White, R O'Toole (0-1); D O'Driscoll (0-1), S O'Donoghue (0-6, 3fs), R Harkin (0-1); B Coakley (0-5, 4fs), P Kelleher (0-2), M Hurley (0-2). Subs: E Lavers for Histon (45), M Dineen (0-1) for O'Donoghue (49), S O'Leary for O'Driscoll (54), S Sherlock (0-3, 1f) for Hurley (55), C Kiely for McSweeney (58), K Cremin for Cronin (59). Clare: K Roche; C O'Halloran, D Nagle, N Lynch; P Lillis, J O'Dea (0-1), C O'Dea (0-1); D Walsh, L Tierney; K Malone, C Brennan (0-2, 1f), C Ó Hainiféin; S O'Donoghue, K Sexton (0-4, 3fs), D Egan. Subs: T Lynch for Walsh, M Duffy for Egan (both h-t), E O'Connor for O'Donoghue (52), E Tubridy for Malone (56). Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary).