Sligo Leitrim 1
Clare 1

(AET) - Clare won 5-4 on penalties

Clare are through to the semi-final of this season's Oscar Traynor Cup after an impressive performance and deserved penalty shootout victory over a strong Sligo Leitrim side at Ray McSharry Park in Sligo. The Sligo Leitrim team was backboned by 9 players with League of Ireland experience and were fancied by many outside of Clare to advance. This Clare team has been impressive throughout the season so far and from the start it looked like they were well up for this match with David McCarthy having a shot just go over the crossbar and Trevor Maxwell having an effort well saved inside the first 5 minutes. Sligo Leitrim first effort at goal came on 10 minutes when Lee Marshall's effort was deflected wide. Maxwell had another effort narrowly miss the target on 18 minutes and on 20 minutes he made a great run down the right wing cut inside the last defender and was unlucky to see his effort go over the crossbar. Throughout the first half Maxwell continued to impress and caused the Sligo Leitrim defence a lot of problems. On 28 minutes Con Collins got some space in the middle of the park and played a ball over the top to Derek Fahy. Fahy was denied by Tony Clarke in the Sligo Leitrim goal when he came off his line well to make the save. John Gaffney had a long range effort for Sligo Leitrim just miss the target on 32 minutes. On 38 minutes Eoin O'Brien was denied a goal scoring opportunity when a linesman's flag for offside stopped him in his tracks when it looked like he had timed his run well. Before half time Mattie Nugent had to make a good interception after Sligo Leitrim got into a good attacking position on the edge of the box.

Clare made a good start to the second half and had a great chance to take the lead when Collins put McCarthy through on goal but he was denied by a top class save by Clarke in goals. Against the run of play Sligo Leitrim took the lead on 53 minutes when Gareth Kelly scored from the penalty spot after Richie Lillis committed a foul in the box when attempting to make a tackle. It took Clare a while to recover from this setback and John Healy kept Clare in the contest on 62 minutes with a great save after a cross from Gareth Kelly found Gary Rooney free in the box. Clare got back in the match on 65 minutes when Derek Fahy won a free outside the box and David McCarthy's free kick into the box was missed by everyone and nestled in the bottom right corner of the net. This was no more than Clare deserved. Minutes later another free kick from McCarthy for another foul on Fahy rebounded off the crossbar and Sligo Leitrim survived with the help of a referee's whistle for a free out. Clare were denied a lead goal on 73 minutes when a Fahy header first rebounded off the crossbar and was then finished to the net by the same player only for the goal to be ruled out by a controversial linesman's flag that went up very late. To most observers in the ground he was well onside when the ball came into the box. Fahy was causing the Sligo Leitrim defence a lot of problems now and on 76 minutes he had an effort go over the crossbar. On 83 minutes a good passing move by McCarthy and Fahy resulted in a Fahy shot from outside the box being deflected into the hands of Clarke in goals when his effort could just as easily finished in the back of the net. In the last minute of normal time Keith Nibbs had a chance to win it for Sligo Leitrim but his effort missed the the target and extra time loomed when the referee blew the full time whistle shortly afterwards. Clare brought on Ally McMillian for McCarthy and Eamon O'Reilly for Lillis. Sligo Leitrim brought on another former League of Ireland player in Gino O'Boyle for Nibbs. In the first period of extra time O'Boyle created some space on the edge of the box and had an effort go wide of the right post. In the second period of extra time Mattie Nugent made a great block in the box to deny Sligo Leitrim a goal. In the last minute of extra time Mike O'Malley was taken down right on the edge of the box and for a moment everyone thought the referee was going to award a penalty. The free kick was cleared and penalties were going to decide who was going to win this thrilling contest.

Daryl Eade took the first penalty for Clare and his effort was saved. The pressure was now on Clare and John Healy dived well to his left to make a great save from O'Boyle's penalty. David Russell, Eamon O'Reilly, Mattie Nugent and Con Collins all had well struck efforts for Clare find the back of the net to put the pressure on Sligo. Neal McKenna, Packie Callaghan, John Gaffney and Gareth Kelly replied each time for Sligo Leitrim to leave the shootout at 4-4 entering sudden death. Eoin O'Brien scored for Clare and it was left to Sligo Leitrim's Lee Marshall to keep them in the Cup. To the delight of everyone in Clare his effort went high over the crossbar and Clare celebrated getting through to a semi-final meeting away to Tipperary or Cork on the 27th/28th March.

Clare
1. John Healy (Avenue Utd)
2. Liam Murphy (Newmarket Celtic)
3. Richie Lillis (Bunratty)
4. Mattie Nugent (Avenue Utd)
5. David Russell (Avenue Utd)
6. Con Collins (Bunratty)
7. Trevor Maxwell (Bridge Utd)
8. Mike O'Malley (Newmarket Celtic)
9. Derek Fahy (Bridge Utd)
10. David McCarthy (Avenue Utd)
11. Eoin O'Brien (Newmarket Celtic)
12. Daryl Eade (Rock Rovers) for Maxwell
13. Ally McMillian (Bunratty) for McCarthy
14. Eamon O'Reilly (Avenue Utd) for Lillis
15. Michael Devitt (Newmarket Celtic)
16. Barry Nugent (Avenue Utd)
17. Kieran McGlynn (Newmarket Celtic)

Sligo Leitrim
1. Tony Clarke
2. Neal McKenna
3. Andrew McLoughlin
4. John Gaffney
5. Packie Callaghan
6. Gary Rooney
7. Lee Marshall
8. Damien Scanlon
9. Gareth Kelly
10 Keith Nibbs
11. Alan Flynn
12. Gino O'Boyle for Nibbs
13. Ross McLoughlin for Flynn

Referee: Tommy Cormican
Assistant Referees: Frank Daly & Declan Toland

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