*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Three second half goals catapulted Clare into the last four in the Munster Minor Championship after producing a rousing eleven point turnaround in Ballyagran.
Clare 3-6
Limerick 0-9
Venue: Ballyagran
In what is proving to be a happy hunting ground for the Banner who also cemented their Phase 2 place in the Under 20 equivalent on the Cork border, it will also be memorable for the Fennell family after Conor scored four points for the Under 20’s to overcome Limerick nine days earlier, only for young brother Sean to surpass that achievement with a whopping 2-3 second half haul.
Indeed, it was his switch to full-forward at the turn of the final quarter that finally turned the screw for Clare who had fallen 0-6 to 0-1 in arrears against the conditions by the midway mark.
1-2 without reply in the first eight minutes of the new half including a spectacular equalising goal through David Cahill after good work from Shane O’Connell and Diarmuid McMahon quickly re-paired the damage before targetman Fennell dominated the final quarter.
Trailing by one entering the final ten minutes, a brilliant Diarmuid Boyle interception fed the excel-lent Conor Burke to directly pick out Fennell who made up for his initial slip with a thumping shot to the right corner of the net at 2-4 to 0-8.
Buoyed by that goal that put the visitors in front for the very first time, three minutes later the Kilrush Shamrocks powerhouse struck again as he fielded a Shane O’Connell delivery before be-ing brought down for a penalty that he cooly dispatched past home goalkeeper Stephen Kearney.
From there, it was all about closing out the contest, with Fennell teeing up fellow marksman Conor Burke before converting a 50 metre free of his own with the last kick of the contest.
It was all so different in the opening half as the dominant conditions meant that it took until the 28th minute for Conor Burke to open the Banner’s account.
They did start the brighter and might have snatched an early goal when Diarmuid McMahon in-tercepted and passed inside to Burke whose shot was stopped by Kearney.
Instead, the hosts finally settled into the stride, thanks in the main to midfielder Cian Costelloe who picked off three excellent points to ensured a five point interval cushion.
With the conditions to come, Clare simply put their heads down and chipped away at the deficit with those timely goals seeing the away side outscore Limerick by 3-5 to 0-3 in a refreshing sec-ond period.
Fortunate to escape with an opening win a week earlier, Clare are now through to the Daryl Darcy Final along with a place in a Munster Semi-Final with a game to spare. However, with Tipperary garnering a commanding 1-14 to 0-9 victory over Waterford, it now means that next Tuesday’s final round derby is essentially a dead-rubber as the side’s will meet again in the Phase 1 Final a fortnight later.
Scorers for Clare: Sean Fennell 2-3 (1-0 Pen, 1f, 1’45); Conor Burke 0-3 (1f); David Cahill 1-0
Scorers for Limerick: Cian Costelloe 0-3, Shane Dolan 0-3 (2f); Donal Dawson 0-1, Leon Curtin 0-1 (f), Charlie Casey 0-1
Clare
1: Eoin Byrne (St Breckan’s)
2: Aaron Killeen (Lissycasey)
3: Conor Hill (Lissycasey)
4: James Blunnie (Kilrush Shamrocks)
19: Daniel Brody (Ennistymon)
8: Diarmuid Boyle (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
7: Stephen Murphy (St Joseph’s Miltown)
6: Liam Clune (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
13: Darragh Townsend (Cooraclare)
12: Colm Downes (Shannon Gaels)
11: Sean Fennell (Kilrush Shamrocks)
10: David Cahill (Clooney-Quin)
15: Conor Burke (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
20: Shane O’Connell (Cooraclare)
14: Diarmuid McMahon (Lissycasey)
Subs
17: Aidan Weaver (Lissycasey) for Clune (25)
21: Gabriel Fennell (Cooraclare) for Townsend (48)
5: Caleb Walsh (Banner) for Downes (54)
9: Bernard Keating (Éire Óg)
Limerick
1: Stephen Kearney (St Senan’s)
2: Danny McCarthy (Fr. Casey’s)
3: Harry McDermott (Monaleen)
4: Sean Hanley (Oola)
5: Michael Mulcahy (St Senan’s)
6: Donal Dawson (Ahane)
7: Conor Ó Longaigh (Mungret St Paul’s)
8: Cian Costelloe (Cappagh/Rathkeale)
9: Daniel O’Connell (Mungret St Paul’s)
10: Shane Dolan (Monaleen)
11: Rory Mullins (Mungret St Paul’s)
12: Ben Ryan (Croom)
13: Charlie Casey (Monaleen)
14: Jake Slattery (Cappamore)
15: Leon Curtin (Fr. Casey’s)
Subs
21: Rian McNamara (Hospital/Herbertstown) for Slattery (HT)
20: Michael Naughton (Croom) for Dawson (35, inj)
18: Daniel Murphy (Ballylanders) for Ryan (48)
17: Evan O’Connor (Fr. Casey’s) for Curtin (56)
Referee: Ciaran Murphy (Cork)
