Sherlock’s late flourish clinches trophy despite spirited Clare rally
CORK stole in at the death to take the McGrath Cup in Mallow by the narrowest of margins from a Clare side that looked like ending their decade-long wait for the pre-season trophy.
Injury-time heroics from Cork’s Stephen Sherlock decided the day after Cork had been hauled back from a 10-point lead to trail in the dying minutes.
A brace of Cork goals from Mark Collins and Sherlock himself looked to have put paid to Clare’s chances early on but the Banner showed great resilience to get back to something like respectability. It was 2-8 to 1-4 at the break before Clare went on a scoring spree that rocked the Rebels.
Cork had the first two major interventions in the fifth and sixth minutes respectively when first Collins and then Sherlock rounded his man to finish.
A brace of points from Éimhin Courtney had the game back to a five-point gap on 20 minutes but Cork surged 10 ahead with a host of classy scores from play.
They could have put this one to bed when Sherlock picked up a long range pass from Cathal Vaughan however the striker missed. His blunder would prove costly moments later as Clare made them pay on the stroke of the break when Keelan Sexton finished well to cut the gap to seven.
Clare started the second half stronger and had the game down to just two points thanks to points from Finucane and a goal from centre-forward Alan Sweeney.
Clare goaled again in the 52nd minute through Courtney after a goalkeeping mistake and led heading into the final minutes but the last-minute goal and a point from Sherlock sent the spoils back to Cork.