Clare find extra gear to power away from Wexford and seal semi-final place

Clare 1-24 Wexford 3-14

The engine finally started for Clare when they were freewheeling down the cliff road. A purple passage for Wexford had turned a two-point deficit into a six-point lead in the space of 13 minutes and their opponents looked doomed. That’s how it stood as the hour ticked up.

By then this All-Ireland quarter-final before a decent crowd of 34,640 had apparently lurched away from the well-regarded Munster finalists, widely touted as Limerick’s closest pursuers after an electric provincial final just two weekends previously.

Yet this curious match of twists and turns had one more change of direction left and that proved decisive. Clare suddenly got ignition and put up 1-6 without reply to wrest back control of the match.

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After a pedestrian opening half, the match became an absorbing contest and concluded in a blaze of scores that left the winners with four to spare, a deliverance that their most devoted supporters couldn’t have guessed at when they trailed 0-15 to 3-12 in the 60th minute.

Some fall-off in performance had been feared by Clare and that’s what happened in the first half. Matters had been exacerbated by the disciplinary melodrama that saw forward Peter Duggan and corner back Rory Hayes sprung from what had been considered certain suspensions midweek.

In the event, neither hit their stride and Hayes was unceremoniously hauled ashore after nine minutes during which time he and the defence had been under enough pressure to make up manager Brian Lohan’s mind.

The manager said afterwards that it had been a routine switch and that Cian Nolan, who had been named in the programme, which presumably went to print before the CHC went to work on Wednesday, had been in good form. Asked did he think Hayes had been affected by the week, he shrugged that he didn’t know.

Alarm bells had rung when Jack O’Connor bounded through the same defence in the first minute to shake the net with the match’s first score within 24 seconds. It quickly became clear that Clare’s big players were not buzzing.

One exception was Shane O’Donnell, who proved a handful throughout, shooting two points but impacting energetically around the half forwards.

Lohan said that the thing about marquee players is that they keep persevering until they find some sort of form, which is how his team escaped and made the semi-final, but in the early stages Tony Kelly was misfiring, shooting four frees wide — three in two minutes — and another from play.

Shane Reck, who as his manager Darragh Egan pointed out had missed months with a hamstring injury, did a good job on the Ballyea maestro but Kelly’s influence was all over the late surge that settled the match.

He had been replaced on frees by Duggan but his experience wasn’t notably happier and he sent three wide but nailed important ones in the second half.

Clare’s first phase of salvage had to be to stop the early rot and they managed that after Wexford had shaped up very convincingly, shooting points from Lee Chin, Oisín Foley and Rory O’Connor. If the brakes were applied after quarter of an hour, it was no coincidence that O’Connor, the team’s form forward, had to leave the pitch with a serious-looking injury in the 15th minute.

Egan registered concern afterwards, saying the player would be scanned as soon as possible.

Wexford’s backs were also in control, both Reck and his brother Damien cutting out — admittedly loose — ball being hit into attack by Clare and Matt O’Hanlon and Liam Ryan managing what the opposition had to offer.

Bit by bit, though, and without playing brilliantly, Clare clawed a way back into the game, quarrying out points here and there with Duggan finding range on frees and Ian Galvin sneaking over a couple.

Defence recovered and Paul Flanagan and David McInerney asserted themselves whereas Nolan steadied things on arrival. They didn’t actually concede a free for 21 minutes, which could equally have been a function of how off the pace they had been but by half-time the scores were level, 0-10 to 1-7, a not very thrilling outcome for Wexford.

The incremental gains continued after the break. David Reidy gave Clare the lead for the first time immediately on the restart. Diarmuid Ryan rampaged down the wing for a couple of points and the assumption was that the favourites were now getting their house in order.

It was all the more disturbing for them when Wexford reared up and took them for 2-2. The first was calamitous. A long free from goalkeeper Mark Fanning, looked like it had been touched to net by Chin but on review could be seen simply bouncing in the square into the net.

There was nearly an immediate response. Duggan fought to get Galvin a bit of space and his shot cannoned back off the crossbar and within seconds Chin was under another dropping ball, getting it under control as it squirted loose and firing in the third goal.

That was more or less as good as it got for Wexford. Clare’s resurgence was impressive because it didn’t come easily but once they hit a rhythm the comeback was remorseless. The bench played a big part. Aron Shanagher and Shane Meehan managed 1-4 between them, the former’s goal breaking Wexford in the 67th minute.

Kelly’s long-distance free was spilled in the square and although the frenzy that followed looked to have fizzled out, Shanagher came in from the left and steered the ball into the net to reclaim the lead for good this time.

There were grace notes to come from Kelly and Shanagher, rifling over from the right wing but the predominant sense was of relief. They had avoided a haymaker and can now gather themselves for a first All-Ireland semi-final in four years.

CLARE: 1. E Quilligan; 25. R Hayes, 3. C Cleary, 4. P Flanagan; 5. D Ryan (0-3), 6. J Conlon, 7. D McInerney; 10. C Malone (0-1), 15. R Taylor; 8. D Fitzgerald (0-1), 12. S O’Donnell (0-2), 26. P Duggan (0-5, frees); 9. D Reidy (0-2), 13. I Galvin (0-2), 11. T Kelly (capt; 0-4).

Subs: 2. C Nolan for Hayes (9 mins), 14. M Rogers for Reidy (54 mins), 18. A Shanagher (1-2) for Fitzgerald (59 mins), 19. S Meehan (0-2) for Galvin (62 mins),

WEXFORD: 1. M Fanning (1-0f); 25. S Reck, 3. L Ryan, 2. S Donohoe; 5. M O’Hanlon, 6. D Reck (0-1), 7. P Foley; 24. D O’Keeffe (0-1), 9. L McGovern; 11. J O’Connor (1-0), 10. O Foley (0-2), 13. R O’Connor (0-1); 14. C McDonald, 12. L Chin (capt; 1-8, 0-6f), 4. C Devitt.

Subs: 15. M Dwyer (0-1) for R O’Connor (15 mins), 8. K Foley for O’Keeffe (62 mins), 19. C Flood for McGovern (64 mins), 22. C McGuckin for S Reck (67 mins), P Morris for D Reck (69 mins),

Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork)