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*Éamonn Foudy saves a penalty for Inagh/Kilnamona. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ÉAMONN FOUDY’s penalty save from Tony Kelly was “a real turning point” for Inagh/Kilnamona as they went on to defeat Ballyea by ten points in the first round of the Clare SHC.
After returning for a second spell in charge of Inagh/Kilnamona, Eugene Cullinan could not have asked for a better start than their commanding victory over Ballyea.
Speaking following their impressive opening round win in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg, Cullinan expressed his delight with getting two points on the board. “We’re delighted to get off the mark. That’s what the first round is all about, getting two points on the board and we got a performance as well which we were delighted with”.
Two of his main men, Aidan McCarthy and David Fitzgerald, were among Inagh/Kilnamona’s standout performers, combining for 19 points, but Cullinan was quick to praise the contributions made throughout the team. “A lot of the stuff we’ve been working on came off. Mattie Shannon has a lot of work done with them in their structure and style of play. Our spine of the team really held up well. Éamonn Foudy in goals made a couple of great saves and was very influential from his puckouts. Shane Woods at full-back did a real man-marking job on Tony Kelly, James Hegarty at centre-back was a real presence there, Kealan Guyler at centre-forward got a lot of assists, scored three points and got onto a lot of breaking ball”.
Playing with the aid of the breeze, Inagh-Kilnamona led by double scores at the interval, 0-16 to 0-8, after an impressive opening-half display. “Sixteen points in thirty minutes of hurling is great shooting, we did leave a couple more behind us too, but there was a tricky breeze out there so it’s understandable that you’re going to miss a few. I was delighted with our first-half performance,” Cullinan told The Clare Echo.
Ballyea began to get a foothold in the game during the third quarter and in the forty-second minute, Tony Kelly was awarded a penalty which he stepped up to take himself. However, his Clare teammate Éamonn Foudy produced a stunning save to preserve Inagh/Kilnamona’s advantage. “It was a real turning point in the game because Ballyea had come into that second-half strongly and they had a bit of momentum built. They were with the breeze as well and that was a big help for both teams when playing with it. That penalty would have brought it back to two points at that stage, there was definitely a shift in momentum going into that final quarter, I think we really kicked on,” he concluded.
