Fantastic late Hoare save earns final slot for Carrig Riverstown as Clara rue missed chances

A sensational save from Liam Hoare to deny Ross Brady a third goal deep into stoppage time was enough to send Carrig-Riverstown through to the Offaly Senior “B” final, but the emerging club will know that their progression also owed a lot to Clara’s inaccuracy in the opening 30 minutes of this enthralling game.

Molloy Precast and Environmental Systems Senior “B” Hurling Championship semi-final

Carrig-Riverstown 1-21

Clara 2-15

When it came to the physical exchanges and the turnover battle, Clara were marginally the better side and with the light breeze at their backs, they created a plethora of chances in the opening half. However, eight white flags and 11 wides is a desperately poor rate of return and in what were ideal conditions, it meant they were fighting the tide against a more balanced and all-round Carrig-Riverstown side.

The 2023 Offaly IHC champions just had more attacking threats, while in the battle between two extremely talented young hurlers, Caelum Larkin came up with several big defensive plays to curtail the influence of Barry Egan. Egan shot one sensational second half score and was very active from open play, but he set the tone for the rest of his team with a very poor wide early in the game and also will look back with regret at his goal chance late in the first half that was denied by a sensational block from Larkin.

Add in three points from Lee Hogan off the bench, including one majestic strike from the stand-side touchline, and those extra ingredients made all the difference for Carrig-Riverstown.

Nonetheless, the game was unrecognisable from the one-sided group game between the clubs a month previously. Conor Doyle’s deployment at centre back was pivotal to Clara’s transformation and while David Egan and Peter King got some excellent early scores for their opponents, Ross Brady’s goal in the fourth minute balanced out some shocking wides from the Magpies.

Two quick and impressive scores from Josh Fleming and Marcas Dalton made it 1-4 to 0-4 by the midway point in the first half but Carrig-Riverstown took over for the second quarter and were full value for their narrow interval lead.

Six points in a row resulted from Willie Gleeson frees before Patrick Bergin and Mark O’Brien roused the C-R-dominated crowd with points before the break.

That momentum continue when Lee Hogan set up Conor Freeman for the first point of the second half, but Clara settled into the game from there, Cormac Delaney and Conor Egan were central to a second goal from Brady, perfectly finished inside Liam Hoare’s near post, while in general, the decision to move Delaney out to the half-forward line and let Josh Fleming attack the game from closer to goal seemed to work out on both fronts.

In every aspect, however, inaccuracy just haunted Clara. They continued to struggle with their shooting and for every hard turnover they won, it seemed like there was a stray pass to undo their good work.

Ross Brady winning a hard ball and overshooting his pass to allow Joe Hoctor to hit the target from 80 metres out typified that issue for Clara, though by virtue of Brady’s second goal, they still led going into the last ten minutes.

A high ball forward was fielded by Patrick Bergin to set up a Conor Freeman run and goal to make it 1-17 to 2-12, and Hogan’s two excellent points from play briefly pushed the lead out to four.

Clara’s were nothing if not resilient however, scoring through Conor Egan to leave a goal between the teams going into stoppage time. Martin Fleming and Conor Doyle won a couple of hard balls in the half-back line to set up late Hail Mary high balls into the Carrig-Riverstown square and for the second of those, their prayers were almost answered. Josh Fleming scooped up the ball in traffic and while he was initially blocked, he flashed a pass across to Ross Brady on the edge of the small square.

Brady opted to swing the hurl and strike first time, catching the sliotar well, but somehow Liam Hoare made a reflex save for the ages, swiping his hurl to deflect it away for a 65 that was underhit and easily cleared.

MATCH ANALYSIS

MAN OF THE MATCH

Joe Hoctor (Carrig-Riverstown): There was no single architect of this win for Carrig-Riverstown and Hoctor had no single moment akin to Conor Freeman’s goal or Liam Hoare’s save on the very last attack, but he was a consistently strong presence at the heart of the defence and delivered some vital turnovers in the second half when the need was greatest.

Conor Freeman, Caelum Larkin and Brendan Hoctor were also in the mix, as were Martin Fleming, Conor Doyle and Josh Fleming for Clara.

THE SCORERS

Carrig-Riverstown: Willie Gleeson 0-6f, Conor Freeman 1-2, Lee Hogan 0-3 (0-1f), David Egan 0-2, Brendan Hoctor 0-2 (0-1f, 0-1 65), Peter King 0-1, Patrick Bergin 0-1, Mark O’Brien 0-1, Cathal King 0-1, Liam Hoare 0-1f, Joe Hoctor 0-1.    

Clara: Ross Brady 2-0, Cormac Delaney 0-4f, Josh Fleming 0-3, Conor Doyle 0-3 (0-2f), Marcas Dalton 0-2, John Ledwith 0-1, Conor Egan 0-1, Barry Egan 0-1.

THE TEAMS

CLARA: Willie Fleming; Lorcan Hiney, Myles Handy, Conor Taylor; Martin Fleming, Conor Doyle, Ciarán Doyle; Conor Egan, Marcas Dalton; Josh Fleming, Ross Brady, John Ledwith; Barry Egan, Cormac Delaney, Scott Griffith.  Subs: Eoin Gavin for Griffith (43), Liam Flynn for Ledwith (58), Conor Dolan for Ciarán Doyle (60).

CARRIG-RIVERSTOWN: Liam Hoare; Thomas Hogan, Michael Fitzgerald, Caelum Larkin; Brendan Hoctor, Joe Hoctor, Timmy Carey; Peter King, Cathal King; Patrick Bergin, Conor Freeman, David Egan; Willie Gleeson, Mark O’Brien, Andrew Coakley.  Subs: Lee Hogan for Gleeson (half-time), Dylan Hogan for Egan (43), Dan England for Bergin (58).

Referee – Kieran Dooley (Drumcullen).  

REFEREE WATCH

No real moments of controversy for Kieran Dooley, who began the game by emphatically shutting down some words of criticism from the Clara dugout and continued to maintain good control of the game from then on.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

That heart-stopping finale that culminated in Liam Hoare’s incredible save to deny Ross Brady a third goal will be the abiding memory from this game.

VENUE WATCH

The pitch was in pristine condition to facilitate the game while the Birr club had plenty of stewards to provide a comfortable experience for the disappointingly small crowd that came in to see the game.

WHAT'S NEXT

Carrig-Riverstown are bound for the county final where they will take on the winners of tomorrow’s game in Banagher between Kilcormac-Killoughey and Lusmagh. For Clara, the majority of the panel will now turn their attention to the Senior B football championship, but for those who only hurl, it’s the end of the line for 2025.

STATISTICS

Wides: Carrig & Riverstown – 8 (3 in first half); Clara – 16 (11 in first half).

Yellow cards: Carrig-Riverstown – 2 (Patrick Bergin, Mark O’Brien); Clara – 2 (Conor Egan, Ciarán Doyle, ).

Red cards: 0.