Kelly the difference as Banner pushed all the way by Laois
WE’VE got to hand it to Ger Loughnane, he sure called this one. The former Clare boss believes his native county’s hurlers could well be on a ‘steady decline’, arguing that Brian Lohan’s group is ‘just above Joe McDonagh level’.
And sure enough when Clare met Laois, the reigning McDonagh Cup champions, at Nowlan Park yesterday they won by just a point.
They were lucky, too, that referee Thomas Walsh called full-time when he did because Laois were whipping up some storm at that stage, outscoring Clare by 1-3 to 0-1 from the 68th minute and by 1-6 to 0-3 from the 56th.
Make no mistake about it, this was a near miss for Clare who were mightily unconvincing in scraping through to tomorrow’s draw for Round 2 of the qualifiers.
Those games take place next weekend and Clare will be without David McInerney who was dismissed on a straight red card late in the first half.
Without McInerney – as well as John Conlon, Colm Galvin, Peter Duggan and Podge Collins, for various reason – Clare were there for the taking. And Laois almost did just that.
Eddie Brennan’s boys refused to throw in the towel, even after a revival early in the second-half appeared to have been snuffed out by five Clare points in a row.
They tore Clare asunder late on and while Tony Kelly lit up the first half with 0-10, he ended up virtually man-marking the marauding Pádraig Delaney who scored a Laois point and set up another during that finale. ‘We’re on the floor because it was there for us,’ said Brennan.
‘We did all the hurling in the second half but kept getting hit with sucker-punch points.’
Brennan was non-committal afterwards about his future with Laois, describing it as a ‘wait and see’ situation.
Laois refused to wilt, despite losing key forward Ross King to an early hamstring injury after hitting 1-2.
Kelly enjoyed a prolific spell of scoring in the 15 minutes before half-time to nudge Clare 0-16 to 1-6 ahead at half-time.
A James Keyes goal ignited Laois again though a flurry of Clare points had the effect of dousing the Laois fire.
Even with 14 men, Clare looked set for a comfortable win when they led by 0-23 to 2-11 at the second water break and by seven points shortly after.
They were forced onto the back foot though and were in trouble after Aaron Dunphy’s third goal for Laois in the 68th minute. Clare: E Quilligan; R Hayes, C Cleary; P Flanagan; S O’Halloran, S Morey, A McCarthy; D McInerney, D Reidy (S Golden 53); C Malone, T Kelly, C Guilfoyle (D Ryan 56); A Shanagher (A Cunningham 67), S O’Donnell, R Taylor (G Cooney 62).
Scorers: T Kelly 0-13 (9f), A Shanagher 0-3, R Taylor, C Malone, D McInerney, S Morey 0-2, R Hayes, A McCarthy (1f), C Guilfoyle 0-1.
LAOIS: E Rowland; L Cleere, D Hartnett, S Downey (C Phelan 66); J Kelly (S Maher h-t, M Hennessy 70); R Mullaney, P Delaney, E Killeen (C McEvoy 49); FC Fennell, J Keyes; A Dunphy, M Kavanagh, C Stapleton; R King (P Purcell 23), W Dunphy.
Scorers: M Kavanagh 0-6 (3f, 1 s/l), R King 1-2 (0-2f), A Dunphy, J Keyes 1-1, W Dunphy, P Purcell 0-2, J Kelly, P Delaney, C McEvoy 0-1.
Referee: T Walsh (Waterford).