Rynaghs started quite brightly and scored the first point. Clara equalised after about 5 minutes and then scored another point shortly after to lead by 0-2 to 0-1. After that, Rynaghs took quite a hold on the middle of the pitch. The next ten minutes or so brought 4 points for Rynaghs and at least one scorable free that was missed. Also in this period, Clara almost got caught with a ball over the top that had Darren Kelly stretching every bit of his arms to reach. I think he missed the ball as it lobbed him, but managed to turn quickly and land on the ball. A free was given (correctly) for handling the ball on the ground, but it was a real chance for Rynaghs as Kelly was the last man back - Clara were fortunate here, particularly as they were a couple of points down at the time.
This was really as good as it was going to get for Rynaghs. Clara started to compete better in the middle and shortly after scoring their third point of the game, John O'Hara carried the ball from around the 40 all the way to the goals and found the back of the net. Clara scored another point before the half-time whistle to lead 1-4 0-5.
The second half was pretty much one-way traffic. Clara began to get a strangle-hold on the midfield area, catching ball and winning breaks. Rynaghs were to score only two more points in the game (at stages when it really didn't matter) while Clara were to add considerably to their tally.
An early point (I think John Reynolds) was followed up by a nice move by Clara that saw Tony Dalton tease an accurate pass over the last man back for Rynaghs into the arms of John Reynolds, who rounded the goalkeeper to shoot into an empty net. Another couple of points followed (Reynolds & O'Hara) before John O'Hara found Tony Dalton with another ball over the last man back. Like Reynolds he turned to face an empty net. At this stage Clara had 3-7 on the board and the game was effectively over. Clara added another 3 points to this tally, which I believe were Reynolds and O'Hara with an excellent Stephen Kidney point in between. The only real talking point of this half was when the referee gave Paudie Mulhare a straight red card with about 10 minutes to play - I honestly don't know why (perhaps somebody else spotted it) ?
In summary, Clara were very solid at the back - it was hard to single any of this unit out for special praise. Overall, Clara edged the middle of the pitch and although relatively quiet in the half-forward area, I think the Clara full-forward line (Reynolds, O'Hara, Dalton) scored 3-9 - I could be wrong about this.
A 12 point win boosted Clara's points difference considerably and meant that Ferbane would have to beat Tubber by 8 to top the group. As it turned out, Ferbane were beaten by Tubber by 5 points, which was enough to mean that Clara's near neighbours stole second place in the group.
By my calculations, the group ended like this:
P W D L Pts Pts Diff
Clara 3 2 1 0 7 +13
Tubber 3 1 1 1 4 +4
Ferbane 3 1 1 1 4 +1
Rynaghs 3 0 1 2 1 -18
The much debated points difference factor sees Tubber progress to the knock-out stages and Ferbane out of the championship...cruel I think, but then we can't be playing games off into October every year.
