David Clifford tallied 1-6 as Fossa advanced to the quarter final stage of the Kerry Petroleum Intermediate Club Championship with a 1-18 to 3-7 win over Ballydonoghue. They did not have it all their own way, a strong second half bookended by Clifford’s finding the net in the 54th minute and brother Paudie with two late points, got them over the line. After a cagey start it was the hosts who started the brighter, Brian O'Seanacháin, a former Kerry player rolled the ball into the bottom left corner after eight minutes.
The lead was four points by the tenth minute; Fossa meanwhile, with the Clifford’s and Emmet O’Shea playing well, leveled the tie in the 20th minute, 1-3 to 0-6. Mikey Nolan found the bottom left corner once again of that Fossa goal in the 21st minute, but again Fossa came right back into the contest with the Clifford’s seeing them level at the break 2-4 to 0-10. Fossa got into their groove at the start of the second half, David Clifford, Kieran O’Sullivan, Emmet O’Shea and Paudie Clifford again quickly pointed the visitors into a four point lead.
Ballydonoghue were far from backing down and Paul and Jack Kennelly soon cut the gap back to two points with just ten minutes to go. With time running out Fossa needed the insurance scores, Matt Rennie curled over a beauty on his left boot before a sweeping move down the right channel saw Kieran O’Sullivan square the ball across the face of goal for David Clifford to tap home. A crucial score that exten.