*Seán Neylon of St Joseph’s Miltown gets away from Eoghan Killeen. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
A LAST REMAINING spot in the TUS Clare SFC quarter-finals is the prize when Doonbeg and St Joseph’s Miltown meet this weekend.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SFC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel.
St Michael’s Park in Kilmihil is the venue as the West Clare sides do battle to try claim the final last eight spot. Their preliminary quarter-final throws in at 17:00 with Chris Maguire of Wolfe Tones appointed as the referee.
It will be the ninth championship meeting between the sides in eleven years with the recent record standing seven wins for Miltown and one for Doonbeg. They clashed in last year’s second round also played in Kilmihil when St Joseph’s had a 2-6 0-7 victory.
From their last eight meetings, Doonbeg have only scored more than one goal against Miltown on one occasion and that was when they prevailed in the 2022 relegation play-off.
St Joseph’s Miltown are expected to be without Cormac Murray for Saturday’s clash. He broke bones in his foot during their draw with St Breckans, a game in which he scored a hat-trick.
Avoiding relegation is the focus on Friday when Kildysart and Kilmihil face off in Cooraclare at 19:30. The loser of this tie will face Wolfe Tones in the relegation final to determine who drops down to intermediate.
Kildysart have yet to win in this year’s championship after drawing with St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield before falling to Cratloe and Éire Óg.
Kilmihil on the other hand narrowly missed out on the knockout stages. They bounced back from their sixteen point first round loss to Lissycasey to then shock Ennistymon in the second round before losing by two points to Doonbeg two weeks ago.
In the Talty Stores Clare IFC, Hennessy Memorial Park in Miltown Malbay is the setting on Monday evening to determine who advances to the quarter-finals. Coolmeen and Michael Cusacks square off at 20:00 with the winner progressing to the last eight.
A North Clare derby awaits on Saturday in Páirc Naomh Mhuire, Quilty when Ennistymon’s second string face off with Liscannor, the defeated side will meet O’Currys in the relegation final. The sides met at the same stage of the competition last year when Ennistymon won 0-10 0-8 but the Beano Rouine managed side are down several personnel from their team and have been greatly weakened due to injuries. However the local rivalry element will be sure to see them attempt to bring their best performance of the campaign.
