Poor Cillian Kiely must have got the fright of his life.
Just put yourself in the Kilcormac-Killoughey forward’s boots for a second. The clock in St Brendan’s Park, Birr was ticking towards 60 and the Special Ks were in dire need of a goal to get them back into this Offaly Senior Hurling championship clash with neighbours and bitter rivals St Rynagh’s.
Rynagh’s held a five point, 1-19 to 2-11 lead at the time, but the fat lady hadn’t sang yet.
Kilcormac-Killoughey had done everything right, Cillian Kiely had done everything right. The clock was against Stephen Byrne’s side but they still had the patience and the nerve to work the ball out from the back. One hand-pass and one snappy stick-pass and they were away.
Then came the money shot. Their left half back found himself in a few yards of space and he only had one thing on his mind. Cillian Kiely was roaring for it down the other end of the pitch, and with a defence-splitting, inch perfect cross-field zipper, the number 7 pinged it over to him.
It didn’t need to be perfect. Kiely had space and he had a couple of inches on his man. He plucked the sliotar with his fingers and left the last Banagher man back for dust.
He had only the goalie to beat now. The odds were in Kiely’s favour. He had the momentum, he had the time, it looked like he was going to bury it.
As it turned out, he didn’t even get a chance to eye up the goals.
A goalkeeper’s creed is to guard their goals like their life depends on it, and the Offaly man wasn’t letting anything past him.
Like Schumacher on Battiston in 82, the bucking Banagher bronco took a run at Kiely, he took a jump at him, and he nearly took his head off.
You can watch the goalies’ kung-fu style blocking tactics here from 16 seconds.
Both men were red carded. Even though Kiely did retaliate, you’d nearly tell the ref in that instance to give the man free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted in response.
Kilcormac missed the penalty, Rynagh’s went on to win. Sometimes there is just no justice in this world.
