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Clarke steals the Saffrons show

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Winning Minor hurling captain Matthew Donnelly collects the Minor Hurling hampionship title at Casement Park on Sunday afternoon.

Antrim...............................................2-19
Armagh..............................................0-10

Antrim eventually got the better of Armagh to seal a 15 point win in Sunday's Ulster Minor Hurling Championship final at Casement Park. The boys from the Orchard county had beaten Antrim in the Ulster league earlier in the season and they gave a very good account of themselves for long periods of this game but in the end they were undone by the scoring power of Antrim corner-forward, Ballycastle's Ciaran Clarke who hit 2-10 in a man of the match display.
Antrim started well and were 0-4 to 0-0 ahead after fifteen minutes with Clarke scoring all four. However once they found their feet Armagh began to grow in confidence and with centre-forward Conor Corvan in excellent form they hit back to level the game by the twenty-first minute with three points from Corvan and one from James King.
The final 10 minutes of the opening half was the best period of the game as King and Corvan sent over points for Armagh, but two apiece from Antrim corner-forwards Ciaran Clarke and Dan McCloskey helped Antrim to a 0-10 to 0-7 half-time lead.
Armagh continued their good work after the break and in the opening ten minutes of the second-half they drew level with three more points from Corvan who was causing the Antrim defence no end of problems.
It looked a little worrying for Antrim at this stage but they slowly but surely began to get on top again and points from McCloskey, Clarke, McGuinness and Jennings settled the nerves again.
Incredibly Armagh would not score again as Antrim made use of the strong breeze to pick off the scores.
With James Black and Paddy McNaughton gaining a grip at midfield for Antrim the Armagh challenge faded and Antrim scored 2-9 without reply in the final twenty minutes, both the goals coming from fiercely struck shots from Clarke.
In the end a comfortable win for the young Saffrons but Kevin McNaughton and his management team will know that a performance like this will be nowhere near good enough for the challenges that lie ahead.

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