Portlaoise ease into provincial final

LEINSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL Portlaoise 1-9 Clara 0-3FOR THE second time in six days the weather threatened to abandon this local derby at O'Moore Park. On Saturday, a dense fog descended upon the pitch and at times in the opening half the Taoiseach must have felt he would be leaving early again.

Portlaoise’s Paul Cahillane opened the scoring, but almost immediately John O’Hara landed a fine equaliser fro the visitors.

Scores were scarce, but when Clara were awarded a penalty midway through the half it looked like it could prove a priceless score. However, John Reynolds blazed well wide of the goal and point by Barry Fitzgerald saw the home side clinging to a 0-3 to 0-2 lead at the interval.

If Clara were unhappy with the first penalty then the decision to award one to Portlaoise in the 34th minute certainly annoyed them. Barry Fitzgerald was impeded and this time Cahillane blasted low to the goalkeeper’s left to put four points between the teams. Portlaoise then added two points before Tom Deehan got one back for Clara, but as it transpired that would be their final contribution in the scoring stakes.

Portlaoise pulled away, adding four great points, two from substitutes Brian Smyth and Jack Fennell to win convincingly.

PORTLAOISE:M Nolan; E Bland, K Fitzpatrick, M McNulty; B Mulligan, C Healy, K Lillis; A Fennelly, B McCormack; C Rogers, B Fitzgerald (0-2), B Glynn; P Cahillane (1-3), C Byrne, P McNulty (0-2). Subs: B Smyth (0-1) for K Fitzpatrick (half-time), C Higgins for B Fitzgerald (56 mins), J Fennell (0-1) for B Glynn (49 mins), C Boyle For C Byrne, A Kelly for B Mulligan (49 mins).

CLARA: K Meehan; A Cronin, P Mitchell, D Kelly; D Baggott, M Mitchell, L Hiney; S Brady, S Deehan (0-1); T Dalton, J O'Hara (0-1), G Guilfoyle; E Brady, J Reynolds, T Deehan (0-1); Subs: M Rosney for A Cronin (45 mins). P Deehan for J O'Hara (45 mins), J Quinn for D Baggott (48 mins). P Deehan for P Mitchell (50 mins).

Referee: Joe Curley (Meath).