Clare joint-manager Gerry O'Connor pinpointed Kilkenny's second goal, which was accredited to substitute Paul Buggy, as the crucial score in yesterday's ESB All-Ireland minor hurling final.

The goal brought hot favourites Kilkenny level on 2-5 to 0-11 and they pushed on from there to win by two points, 2-10 to 0-14.

"The second goal was the crucial one and it gave them the lift they needed - and it came at a crucial time, with a quarter of an hour to go," he ruefully reflected.

"There was a real stop-start feel to the second half. We had a lot of players injured and a lot of enforced substitutions which caused us a lot of grief.

"It came down to the fact that they created two goal chances and took both of them and we didn't create any, and therefore didn't score any. That, in a nutshell, was probably it."

Joint-boss Donal Moloney said: "Fair play to Kilkenny, they stuck at it when things were going badly for them and nobody has a knack of getting goals like Kilkenny.

"That was the difference, but we're exceptionally proud of the players and performance." Tweet

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