Clifford saves barn-storming Bantry the blues with last-gaspsaving point

Bantry Blues 1-12
Nemo Rangers 2-9
A POINT from a 45 by Philip Clifford two minutes into injury time earned Bantry Blues a deserved draw in this exciting TSB Cork county SFC at Dunmanway yesterday.
It would have been very rough justice for the West Cork side to lose this contest, because for most of the hour they led their more fancied opponents only to fall behind for the first time with eight minutes remaining.
Despite the driving misty rain which fell throughout the game, both sides served up a marvellous contest, helped by the greasy conditions which resulted in numerous mistakes by both sides.
Had the Blues lost, they would have only themselves to blame. They were by far the dominant side, particularly in the first half, and their tactic of using long balls in the prevailing conditions had the Nemo defence under constant pressure.
Totally on top at midfield through the excellence of Damien O'Neill and Graham Canty, their forwards, and in particular Philip Clifford and Eric Sheehan, had the Nemo defence in all sorts of trouble, and but for Stephen O'Brien at centre-back, the city side may well have been overrun in that opening 30 minutes.
O'Neill's play was a joy to watch, as he sprayed delightful passes to his forward colleagues, who thrived on the excellent service and showed their class in a blistering eight-minute spell with four points without reply, as Nemo struggled to cope with the pace and precision of Bantry's passing.
On the odd occasion Nemo did manage to attack, Colin Corkery looked to have the beating of Mark O'Connor, who was given yellow card in the 12th minute for his persistent fouling on the big full-forward.
Nemo gradually weathered the early Bantry onslaught and Corkery showed his class with two excellent points, which shored his side up at just one adrift after 15 minutes. The Blues cause wasn't helped when they lost the services of goalkeeper Des McAuley with a reoccurrence of a hamstring injury, but a strangely lethargic Nemo side failed to capitalise.
Corkery's excellent free-taking kept his side in touch as Bantry continued to dictate matters all over the field, most importantly at midfield were O'Neill and Canty ruled the roost over Derek Kavanagh and Kevin Cahill, and it came as no surprise when Bantry finally found the Nemo net.
Not for the first time, Damien O'Neill launched a huge clearance goalwards, and the knock on by Paul O'Rourke was collected by Philip Clifford. Taking the pass in his stride, Clifford shrugged off the challenge of Niall Geary before giving Don Heaphy no chance with a low shot to the corner of the net, and Bantry went in well worth their 1-8 to 0-7 half time lead. Nemo played a three man midfield for the second half, with Martin Cronin coming out from centre-forward and it worked extremely well for them, but not before Bantry had stretched their lead to five points through Philip Clifford, who found himself all alone behind the Nemo defence, but blazed over with the goal at his mercy.
With the Bantry grip at midfield now broken and Stephen O'Brien and Declan Creedon thundering into the game from defence, Ivon Gibbons made a great tackle on Jeremy Canty top prevent a certain score, and Nemo broke upfield where Joe Kavanagh fed Sean O'Brien with a delightful pass and the wing-forward blasted home a precision goal. Nemo were back in business and as the pace of the match quickened even further, the city side drew level when substitute David Niblock put Joe Kavanagh through for another splendid goal. Bantry were reeling from the shock of those two goals, and it got worse when Colin Corkery gave Nemo the lead for the first time in the match with eight minutes to go.
As the rain cascaded down, Nemo clung tenaciously to that one point lead but the Blues weren't to be denied and after Philip Clifford looked to have blown the chance of an equaliser when he missed a free, the incessant pressure won a 45 two minutes into injury time, and he earned his side another day out.