*Chloe Moloney was Clare’s top scorer for their opening round in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate ladies football championship. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
A WINNING start in the All-Ireland intermediate ladies football championship has put Clare in high spirits.
Clare began their campaign on Sunday with a 4-12 2-12 home victory over Wexford.
Megan Downes, Ellie Hanrahan, Lauren Conway and Fidelma Marrinan all scored 1-1 while Chloe Moloney with five points to her name was the side’s top scorer.
Speaking after Sunday’s victory over Wexford Clare manager Graham Shine was full of praise for his charges. “Championship is for winning. We were flying in the first half and in the third quarter but a bit of fatigue set in in the fourth quarter. That’s our sixth game in seven weeks, we have been on the road for the last seven weeks and there was a bit of fatigue there at the end. We will take it handy now this week and we will head to Laois next week and hopefully get another two points on the board”.
Collecting a first round left Shine optimistic Clare will be back in the quarter-finals. “We would hope that today’s win will give us a quarter final place but we still want to keep winning, and grow the culture in the group that we are hard to beat. It proved it there coming down the shoot with 4 minutes to go and we got the goal. that’s a great sign of character in the team and I am just absolutely delighted for those girls that had the jersey on today. They are proud Clare women and they did the county proud today”.
An impressive style of play was evident in Clare’s opening half. “We have worked hard on that style of play. My philosophy is let the ball do the work and I have told the girls to play football. We are giving them a licence to play football, it was unbelievable the ball that was going in in the first half today but we couldn’t last it for the 60 minutes, girls were fatigued. Girls came in from the bench and made a difference”.
Making a welcome return to the county side was Fidelma Marrinan. “I have been in contact with Fidelma all the time. She went off and furthered her career in Dublin and when I made the call to her last month to come in she accepted and has trained hard”.
Shine added, “we have been here last year and the year before in quarter finals and haven’t got over them, I am just hoping that this bunch will get the result next week and bring a quarter final back here and go on further in the competition”.
