'We had to stop an A v B game last week, we were going too well'

It was just over two hours before throw-in that Davy Fitzgerald broke it to Clare's three goal hero Shane O'Donnell he was starting.

All week, the bush telegraph in the county had rang loud with rumours of the Ennis teenager coming in for Darach Honan.

And while the world and his mother knew he was going to start his first game for Clare since the qualifier win over Wexford, a game in which he scored 1-1, the 19-year-old was told for certain he was in from the start.