*Conor Deasy’s equaliser against Newmarket-on-Fergus secured top spot for Sixmilebridge. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
SIXMILEBRIDGE’s ability to “dig out a result” has been the most pleasing aspect of their campaign to date in the Clare senior hurling championship.
Two wins from three games saw the Tommy Liddy and Stiofan Fitzpatrick managed Sixmilebridge claim top spot in Group 4 of the TUS Clare SHC. The reward for this is a quarter-final showdown with reigning champions Clonlara.
Speaking following their 1-19 apiece draw with Newmarket-on-Fergus, Bridge joint manager, Tommy Liddy admitted, “We’re delighted to come away with a draw. Over the balance of play, a draw was definitely a fair result. We seemed to start well and got the first three scores of the game and then Newmarket got on top and it took us a while to get the hang of their puck-outs. The success of those puck-outs meant that they had a platform to build on but I felt that we kind of got a handle on it some bit at half-time and it allowed us to outplay them for ten to fifteen minutes of the second half”.
Newmarket-on-Fergus led The Bridge 1-10 0-11 at half-time but a second half penalty won by Seadna Morey and converted by Jamie Shanahan was “a huge score for us,” Liddy noted.
He added, “It was very similar circumstances to the Crusheen game in that we had butchered three goal chances in the first half so it was important that if we got another one, we needed to take it. And no better man than Jamie to take it and he finished it well”.
Having won five titles in the last eleven seasons, there is plenty of experience within the Sixmilebridge sides, their battling qualities were hailed by Liddy. “The most pleasing part of the past two games was that even though we looked in trouble at certain stages, the boys were able to dig out a result. Against Crusheen we came back to win while tonight we snuck a draw so that’s a good sign of a team and obviously helps to have very experienced players in the side.
“However, we also know that the challenges are going to get much stiffer from now on and you can’t just rely on character coming down the final straight, you simply have to get a performance for the full hour,” he concluded.
