Career
Matthew began his inter-county career in 2001. After a poor start in the Championship, Galway regrouped to progress through the qualifiers in style and get revenge over Roscommon in the quarter final. In the semi-final, Galway were second best to Derry for large periods of the game and in the 55th minute, the score was 1-10 to 0-08 in favour of Derry. However, a revival led by Derek Savage saw Galway fight back and in the 66th minute, Matthew struck the haymaker for Derry's chances of victory. He was on the field for just over ten minutes as Bergin’s replacement. Declan Meehan and Michael Donnellan wove their way up the right flank, before releasing Savage. He jinked this way and that, creating enough space to allow room for the pass. Clancy drifted unmarked into the space in front of Eoin McCloskey’s goal to take it, turned and fired high past the ’keeper. A couple more scores, from a Pádraic Joyce free and Paul Clancy, made certain the victory and Galway qualified for the All-Ireland final with a 3 point victory, 1-14 to 1-11. Galway went on to win the All-Ireland final that year, outclassing a Meath side who had destroyed reigning champions Kerry in the other semi-final. The final score was 0-17 to 0-08.,
Matthew was also part of Galway's Under-21 All-Ireland success in 2002, defeating Dublin by 0-15 to 0-07
Over the next few years, Matthew progressed form his super-sub role into a first choice pick for the Galway set-up, combining his progress with his studies at NUIG.
Matthew has 4 Connacht titles to his name, coming in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008.
After a few lean years during Peter Fordes time in charge, Galway have recovered under new manager Liam Sammon to become a potential tip for the Sam Maguire Cup. Matthew has become an influential presence in the Galway forward line alongside Pádraic Joyce and Michael Meehan. He was named Man Of The Match for his performance against Roscommon in the Connacht SFC 1st Round in May 2008. He won his fourth Connacht title against Mayo on July 13 and earned a place in the quarter-finals as a result. In the build-up to the quarter-final clash against Kerry, Matthew struggled with injury and despite starting the match, he was taken off midway through the first-half. He came back on in the second half but Kerry ran out 1-21 to 1-16 winners over Galway. He scored 1-05 in the 2008 Championship. In 2012 Clancy announced his retirement from Inter-county football.
Read more about this topic: Matthew Clancy
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