A five-star display by top-scorer John Reynolds helped steer Clara to an exciting 1-12 to 2-8 victory over St. Laurences in their AIB Leinster club SFC clash at Newbridge. Reynolds' Midas-like touch was key to Clara's brilliant second half fightback after they looked down and out in trailing by eight points at half-time. The Kildare champions looked likely winners from early on as they notched two quick-fire goals to put Clara well and truly on the backfoot. The hosts' first goal came in the 6th minute with Ronnie Lawlor applying a classy touch in full flight to find the net. The Offaly men were dealt a second major blow shortly afterwards with John Fogarty planting a shot into the Clara net after fine approach work from Karl O'Brien. Clara dug in there though and a point from the aforementioned Reynolds plus similar efforts from Thomas Deehan helped reduce the Offalymens' lead to a more manageable 2-7 to 0-5 at the interval. Clara got a real let-off 20 seconds after the restart when Padraig O'Neill thundered his shot off the crossbar but, in truth, they never looked back thereafter. Powered forward from midfield by brothers Ross and Scott Brady, Clara were lifted by a goal from their brother Eoin in the 43rd minute. Clara got to within a point of their opponents only for Dessie Lawler to point for the Saints five minutes from time and leave them ahead by 2-8 to 1-9. That, amazingly, was to be the visitors' only second half score though. A magnificent point from Reynolds kick-started Clara's race to the finishing post and with the aid of the wind and the Faithful County champions rifled over another two points to seal the Saints fate. Tweet

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