He’s been the hero before and it looked like Tony Kelly was going to be the man of the hour for Ballyea, unfortunately for him Clonlara and in particular Cathal Tots O’Connell had other ideas.
Kelly’s strike on the sixty second minute looked to have done it for Ballyea in their quest for their first ever Clare Senior Hurling Championship. However they have another day to seal the deal and their talisman feels the drawn game will benefit them.
“The more games you play the better you improve, you can do all the training especially coming into a County Final you don’t want to be training too far out you might pick up an injury especially if you only come from a small club, this game will bring us on leaps and bounds”.
After being handed possession Tony made no mistake to split the posts for what could have been the winning score. Several spectators in Cusack Park felt he had scored the winner for Ballyea but the UL student wasn’t going counting any eggs. “You go until the referee blows the whistle, it’s his discretion whether he blows it up three minutes after time or five minutes after time his decision his final, with five or ten minutes to go Clonlara probably thought they had it won and we’re happy enough to get another crack at it in two weeks time”.
A fifty third minute goal from substitute Martin O’Leary swung momentum in their favour, the 2013 Hurler of the Year says creating goal chances has been one of their weaknesses all year. “We got one goal chance and we stuck it, that’s the way it has been going all year for us, we haven’t been creating but when we do create them against a team like Clonlara you have to take them and fair play to Marty he took his chance and he’s two weeks to get himself on the first fifteen for the replay”.
Clare GAA have yet to confirm details for the replay with the tie expected to take place on the weekend of October 29th/30th.