Gutsy Ryan steps up to plate

Clara’s match-winner Lester Ryan said he had no choice but to go for goal four minutes from the end of normal time.

Straight out of Anthony Nash’s book, the Kilkenny inter-county midfielder rolled the close-range free yards ahead of him before unleashing a shot that was deflected to the net and put his team into a lead they never relinquished.

“Keith’s [Hogan] the free-taker usually so I knew that if I stood up for the free I’d have to go for a goal. It was something we needed. We needed to get a goal in that match. We’d been hit with two bad blows in the first half.”