Shock & Awe with late match winning goals

Is there anything that is both as wonderful and terrible at the same time as the last minute winning goal? It is the ultimate in sporting drama, a fact reinforced by the scenes that followed Sunday's Leitrim Senior Hurling Final as Carrick picked the pocket of Cluainin to regain the Stephen Dorrigan Cup in the most dramatic of fashion.

Last minute match winning goals don't really need much more description than that but a little context might just explain why Colm Moreton's net buster was both so exhilarating and traumatic in one fell swoop, the Carrick celebrations disbelieving and joyous in stark contrast to the utter bewilderment and complete shock in the Cluainin camp!

Grounds for concern "weather" we like it or not

THE LAST POINT

When the words “robbery” and “grand larceny” are being bandied about with abandon and its coming without prompting  from the Carrick camp, you need be told nothing else but it probably made the celebrations that little bit sweeter for a Carrick side who were missing three Leitrim players in Stephen Goldrick, Paul Lenehan and Senan Keane from their starting line-up.

Truth be told, I'm not sure who was in greater shock - Carrick for wining a game they looked certain to lose or Cluainin who saw the back to back ripped from their grasp. The Manor men had looked the most composed and  more clinical side for much of this game and the only wonder was that they weren't further ahead when Moreton struck the killer blow in added time.

To be honest, this game defies analysis - Carrick created far more goal chances but looked disjointed compared to the smoother Cluainin. In Pearce Dolan, Martin Feeney, James Rooney, Gavin O'Hagan, Aaron McDermott and Mark McHugh, Cluainin had more players operating at a higher level than their opponents.

Yet while Carrick freely, and maybe gleefully, admit they robbed the title, they did what great teams have done since time began - they hung on in a game when they weren't playing well and when the chance came to strike, by God did they take it!

THE FUTURE IS NOW FOR ST MARY'S

THE LAST POINT

For the Moreton clan, the winning goal capped off a memorable weekend - eldest brother Liam wasn't in action because he was married on Friday but his three brothers Enda, Donal and Colm combined to deliver the coup de grace, a unique family touch to a moment so dramatic and nail-biting that Hollywood wouldn't write it.

It wasn't that Carrick winning was a shock, they've done this exact same thing twice in the last four or five years to break Cluainin hearts, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat  but this was something different, perhaps all the more so because the Man of the Match was Cluainin goalkeeper Peter Poniard.

The goalkeeper's union will tell you a keeper winning the Man of the Match accolade is as rare as hen's teeth but nobody in the Carrick camp questioned the decision to anoint Poniard with the Man of the Match award - anyone I spoke to wearing Carrick red  said it was the only possible decision after Poniard made a series of game defying saves.

I'm covering games in Leitrim a long time and the only other time I remember a Man of the Match award going to a player on the losing side was when Conor Beirne picked up the gong back in the 2013 Intermediate Final  against Glencar Manorhamilton. Nobody from  Manor begrudged Beirne the honour nine years ago and,  just like last Sunday, you realise something special had occurred.

THERE'S NO PERFECT WAY TO LOSE

THE LAST POINT

So congratulations to Peter Poniard on a well deserved award, when the pain of defeat subsides he'll realise just how special it is   to be recognised in such a manner. And congratulations to Carrick on pulling it all out of the fire - it truly is the best way to win a Final only because everyone, no matter who you are, have suffered   on the wrong end of finishes like this  too!