Dublin ‘keeper Cluxton flattens Jason McAteer in charity soccer match

Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton flattened Irish soccer legend Jason McAteer with a punch during a charity soccer match in Dublin yesterday.

Cluxton, who had participated in Dublin’s Allianz League defeat of Down the night before, was lining out for Darndale FC against a Liverpool legends XI in a charity match in aid of Autism Ireland.

The competitive element normally makes way for friendly banter in these sorts of affairs, but Cluxton obviously took exception to something McAteer said or did during the game, and promptly replied with a vicious left hook, a photo of which you can view here, via the Flickr account of Paul Walsh.

The incident made the papers this morning, with the Daily Star featuring a picture of Cluxton’s punch on their back page. The Irish Sun, meanwhile, claim that the stunt was pre-planned in order to entertain the attendance of around 2,500 people, but boxing legend Bernard Dunne didn’t seem to think so if the posts on his Twitter account are to be believed.

Dunne posted a series of tweets and exchanged conversations with various Dublin footballers and teammates of Cluxton including Bernard Brogan, Tomas Quinn and Barry Cahill about the incident. A few samples of his tweets (complete with spelling mistakes) included:

“#StephenCluxton is my hero. Showed a soccer player today (Jason McAteer) GAA boys don't fanny about like those soccer players... 1-2 uni flu!

“@Flinto23 it wad a whopper. If be careful about saying anything about hid mistakes in future if I was on d Dublin panel. Legend.

“@bernardbrogan I don't condone it of course but fu@k me that was impressive. Unlike our western neighbours sport GAA boys dont mess about...

“@bernardbrogan McAteer quickly learned his lesson. Be was ay it all game the cranky fu@k

“@mossyquinn did u see #TheSun they say it was all staged...Didn't know Cluxton nor McAteer where that good acting... IFTAS may be on there way

“@barrycahilldub Im just going to get both to play in my Charity match in June. That should be a fun encounter.”

You can view Dunne’s Twitter page here.

JOE has exclusive pictures of the incident, which you can view here.