Lissycasey lead the way beating St Breckans to claim first semi-final place

*Shane Griffin celebrates scoring a goal for Lissycasey. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography

LISSYCASEY have qualified for the semi-finals of the TUS Clare SFC for the first time since 2021 after deservingly seeing off the challenge of St Breckans.

Lissycasey 2-17
St Breckans 0-14
Venue: Páirc Cuar an Chláir, Cooraclare

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An unanswered finish of 1-2 in the final five minutes including additional time put a more flattering look on the scoreline in Cooraclare for Lissycasey but their place in the last four is fully merited.

Both of the points were converted frees from Daire Culligan, both awarded for breaches by the St Breckans defence who completely lost concentration and didn’t have the required three defenders in their own half.

Culligan finished with an impressive haul of 0-11, four from frees, the remainder from play including a two pointer towards the end of the opening half when he went on a run of kicking three scores in a row within a five minute period.

There was a cross-field breeze in Cooraclare and by the end of the first half, Lissycasey held a 0-11 0-5 and simply put it was their game to lose.

They had a glorious start to the second half, Shane Griffin kicking the ball under the legs of St Breckans netminder Tristan O’Callaghan with the half a mere eighty four seconds old.

O’Callaghan had made an excellent save to deny Griffin on the sixth minute while both Culligan and Aaron Griffin had goal chances in the first half which were not finished to the net.

A brace of two pointers from Padraig Kelly coupled with points from substitute Cathal Morgan and leading scorer Jamie Stack saw St Breckans reduce the gap to four points with fifty one minutes played, they had been nine points behind with thirty nine minutes on the clock.

When points were traded by Culligan and Maccon Byrne, the deficit remained four points with three minutes of normal time remaining but Lissycasey landed the moment to effectively end the match when Shane Griffin’s dropping shot was flicked to the back of the net by Darren Keane.

This made it 2-15 0-14 but the winners sealed out the result with those two converted frees awarded for breaches to become the first of the four semi-finalists for 2025.

MORE TO FOLLOW.

Scorers Lissycasey: D Culligan (0-10 4f 1TP), S Griffin (1-0), C Finnucane (0-2 1f), D Keane (1-0), D McMahon (0-2), A Griffin (0-1), L Griffin (0-1).

Scorers St Breckans: J Stack (0-5 4f), P Kelly (0-5 2TP 1f), S Fitzpatrick (0-1), C O’Brien (0-1), C Morgan (0-1), M Byrne (0-1)

Lissycasey:
1: Thomas Collins

4: Darragh Killeen
3: Ryan Griffin
5: Daire Hill

7: Darragh Killeen
6: Connor Meaney
10: Luke Griffin

8: Matt O’Shea
9: Darren Keane

15: Aaron Griffin
20: Mikey O’Neill
12: Shane Griffin

11: Daire Culligan
13: Conor Finnucane
14: Diarmuid McMahon

Subs:
17: Cian Meaney for O’Neill (53)
18: Niall Kelly for Keane (61)

St Breckans:
1: Tristan O’Callaghan

4: Rowan Danagher
3: Jack Sheedy
2: Pádraic O’Dwyer

5: Alan Sweeney
6: Eoin Guerin
7: Colm O’Brien

9: Padraig Kelly
8: Denis O’Callaghan