At times during this match it was raining, at other times it was a full blown Monsoon, but this was a victory as warming and inspiring as any a Newmarket supporter could hope to witness. As captain Colin Ryan emphasized in his speech afterwards, there are only two top competitions to win in Clare each year. This may not have been championship but it is still a significant achievement and especially so as our senior team is one in transition. About half of them are veterans of 2012 (but even some of these now play in very different positions) while the rest are relatively new to the top level. The scoreline of this match might suggest a dour struggle but in fact it was end to end and highly entertaining throughout. Yes the conditions made it hard, but all 30 men on the field gave it everything and that is what makes any match worth watching.
At halftime the score was 0:4 each but within a minute of the restart, we had chipped over two points from play. In the context of this low-scoring game, that was massive. Three minutes later came another twist when Ronan Goode was sent to the line on a second yellow. It seemed a long way to the finish line with only 14. Cometh the hour, cometh the men. We actually increased our lead from there and held out all the way to the end.
Newmarket: Marty O’Hanlon; Evan Keogh, James McInerney, Shane O’Brien Jr; Liam O’Connor, Enda Barrett, Sean O’Connor; John Feehily, Paudie McMahon; Liam Clancy (0:1), Jack O’Connor(0:1), Colin Guilfoyle(0:2), Noel Frawley, Ronan Goode, Colin Ryan (0:6f) Substitutes Eoin Hayes for John Feehily, Shane O’Brien Sr for Jack O’Connor, Shane Lynch for Paudie McMahon
