*Aine Keane was one of Clare’s standout performers. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
Clare’s flagship ladies footballers are within touching distance of a second successive National League Division 3 final place after staging a dramatic late turnaround to lower hosts Louth on Sunday.
Clare 1-12
Louth 1-8
Venue: Louth GAA Centre of Excellence, Darver
Without scorers-in-chief Fidelma Marrinan and Chloe Moloney from the outset, seven different scorers helped the Banner to an 0-8 to 0-3 interval advantage. However, as the sun disap-peared, the wind picked up in favour of the home side on the resumption and with the visitors being temporarily reduced to 14 due to the sinbinning of Roisin Considine, a resurgent Louth kicked 1-3 without reply to actually hit the front for the first time in 40 minutes.
Perversely however it only seemed to motivate Clare as they upped the ante considerably for the remainder to hold their hosts scoreless and finish with a 1-3 blitz to maintain their unbeaten record.
The returning Roisin Considine and Ailish Considine regained parity within as many minutes be-fore the clinching blow in injury-time as a superb Ciara Hickey block prevented a Louth goal at one end was magnified when Clare broke on the counter for Caoimhe Harvey to pass over the top for substitute Fidelma Marrinan to cooly slip the ball past onrushing goalkeeper Rebecca Lambe Fagan at 1-11 to 1-8.
Not content with that, replacement Katie Mullen had a further shot saved before Aisling Reidy popped up with the insurance point amidst an extended nine minutes of additional time.
An eight point turnaround in just ten minutes proved a remarkable finale in another heartening display that saw Laurie Ryan, Caoimhe Harvey, Ciara Hickey and Aine Keane central to every-thing positive for the Banner throughout.
Injuries to Chloe Moloney and Siofra Ní Chonaill were obvious blows but it proved a worthy test of character for Wayne Freeman’s reshuffled pack that shared the scoring responsibilities among nine different players as opposed to only three for the home side.
That was particularly noteworthy in the second quarter when kicking seven unanswered points through wing-back Louise Griffin (2), Ailish Considine (2), Laura Griffey, Ciara McCarthy and Caoimhe Harvey.
Louth’s best chance of snatching the whip hand early on was repelled by goalkeeper Amy Le-nihan who made a point blank save to deny the dangerous Kate Flood.
Five clear by the break, Clare were on the back foot in a low key restart as a brace of Flood points was solaced by a break involving Ciara McCarthy, Aisling Reidy and Aine Keane before Amy Sexton just cleared the crossbar at 0-9 to 0-5 by the 38th minute.
A yellow for Roisin Considine at the 40 minute mark didn’t initially seem to impact as Louth only scored a solitary point in that ten minute period.
However, Considine’s penance bizarrely would turn out to be nearer to 15 minutes, by which time Louth had actually powered into the ascendency thanks to a bullet strike from substitute Lucy White at 1-8 to 0-10 by the 54th minute.
One key characteristic of this Clare side however has been their never-say-die spirit, with a 1-3 rally against the conditions ensuring that they kept pace with Roscommon at the top of the Divi-sion 3 table, with another home victory against Antrim in a fortnight’s time enough to guarantee promotion back to the second tier for 2025.
Scorers for Clare: Ailish Considine 0-3 (3f); Fidelma Marrinan 1-0; Louise Griffin, Aisling Reidy 0-2 each; Laura Griffey, Ciara McCarthy, Caoimhe Harvey, Amy Sexton, Roisin Considine 0-1 each
Scorers for Louth: Kate Flood 0-6 (4f); Lucy White 1-0; Niamh Rice 0-2
Clare
1: Amy Lenihan (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
4: Aine Keane (Miltown Malbay)
3: Grainne Harvey (West Clare Gaels)
12: Laurie Ryan (Banner Ladies)
5: Roisin Considine (Tír Chonaill Gaels, London)
6: Joanna Doohan (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
21: Louise Griffin (Fergus Rovers)
8: Caoimhe Harvey (West Clare Gaels) (Captain)
9: Aisling Reidy (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
30: Ciara McCarthy (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
11: Ciara Hickey (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
10: Teresa Collins (Burren Gaels)
23: Laura Griffey (Burren Gaels)
14: Ailish Considine (Kilmihil)
24: Amy Sexton (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
Substitutions
7: Sinead Considine (Liscannor) for Griffey (40)
27: Katie Mullen (Kilmihil) for McCarthy (43)
15: Fidelma Marrinan (West Clare Gaels) for Sexton (48)
25: Megan Downes (Cooraclare) for Collins (48)
20: Hannah Doyle (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield) for Ryan (64, inj)
18: Emer Hynes (Clooney-Quin) for Griffin (67, inj)
Louth
1: Rebecca Lambe Fagan (St Patrick’s)
4: Caitlin O’Reilly (Oliver Plunketts)
17: Aine Breen (St Patrick’s)
3: Caoimhe Boyle (Strabannon Parnells)
12: Seoda Matthews (Oliver Plunkett)
6: Anna Whyte (St Patrick’s)
7: Claire McDonald (Roche Emmets)
8: Aoife Halligan (Roche Emmets)
9: Eimear Byrne (St Mochta’s)
13: Mia Duffy (St Kevin’s)
15: Kate Flood (St Patrick’s)
10: Carrie Keenan (St Patrick’s)
5: Aoife Russell (Glen Emmets)
11: Niamh Rice (Cooley Kickhams)
14: Ciara Woods (Clan na Gael)
Substitutions
18: Lucy White (Cooley Kickhams) for Woods (37)
26: Katie Murphy (Naomh Mairtín) for Duffy (43)
19: Rachel O’Connor Leonard (Glen Emmets) for Keenan (49, inj)
21: Katie Doheny (St Kevin’s) for O’Reilly (52)
Referee: Barry Redmond (Wexford)
