Carey’s goal puts Clonlara through

Clonlara                             1-7
Micheál Breathnachs     0-9

A GOAL from defender turned attacker, Ronan Carey, two minutes from the end, gave Clonlara victory by the narrowest of margins over Micheál Breathnachs from Galway in the All-Ireland Junior B Hurling Championship semi-final at Killeedy in Limerick on Sunday.

As a result of this win, the Clare champions will play Conahy Shamrocks from Kilkenny in the final, at the same venue, on Sunday week, March 18.
The Clare side played 40 minutes of Sunday’s semi-final with 14 men after influential forward Alan O’Connell was dismissed on a straight red card and his loss is a huge blow as the team head into the All-Ireland final.
Playing with a strong breeze, Clonlara scored two early points through O’Connell and Jason Murphy and when Ronan Carey added another, things were looking good.
However, the Galway team began to get into the game. Despite lots of possession, they did not register their first score until midway through the first half.
Clonlara went to the break leading 0-5 to 0-3 but this did not look to be enough given the strong breeze and the fact that they were a player down.
The Galway team started the second half well and within a few minutes were ahead by a point. Jason Murphy levelled again for Clonlara but the Galway side edged ahead again and with five minutes left were 0-9 to 0-7 ahead.
Clonlara then switched Carey to the attack and his goal put them ahead. In the remaining time, Micheál Breathnachs piled on the pressure but Clonlara held firm to book their final date. 
Jason Murphy was voted man of the match and there were also good performances from Tom Begley, Mike White, Pa Clancy and Harry Horgan.

Clonlara: Patrick Stritch; Christy O’Kane, Fergal Marren, Eoin Meehan; Ronan Carey, Patrick Clancy Harry Horgan; Jason Murphy, Tom Begley; Michael Collins, William Slattery, Alan O’Connell; Ryan Morris, Paul Barry, Padraic Hession.
Subs: Michael White for Hession.
Scorers: Ronan Carey (1-1), Jason Murphy (0-2), Paul Barry, Tom Begley, William Slattery and Alan O’Connell (0-1 each).