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Clare v Westmeath

I just finished listening to to the Clare game on the radio (retro I know) but it wasn't on TV and I am a serious GAA fan. ( Gaelic Athletic Association, covers Irish football and Irish hurling and my first passion in life. You might as well google it if you follow me as there will be a lot of posts on it over the next decade here.)

P.S @patrickulrich you might as well add #GAA as a tag to the site as if I ever bring more Irish people here it's the sport we live and die by. Irish Football is a mix of soccer and boxing. Irish Hurling is a mix of Rugby, Hockey and first degree murder. (sample below)

Anyway the point of the matter is that I was listening to my local radio station to the game. It was an away game against a team on the same level as us. We were terrible 5 years a go and at the very bottom of the rankings but have put together a good team and climbed the rankings steadily. Not easy as it's an amateur sport and all players are local but we are getting there.

The match was very close and kept going over and back for the whole game. Away game, crowd was against us, history was against us and yet the team stood tall. They stood against the pressure and fought their way over the line. We won the game by the minimum score of 1 point which puts us into the last 12 in the competition. A huge result for a team that was sitting in division 4 just 5 years ago.

It was a hugely satisfying victory for a team that wins nothing and has no trophies but we are one win away from getting to what you might call the playoffs or as we have it labeled the "super eights," The 8 best teams shooting it out to get to the All-Ireland semi finals. It won't be easy but getting a win like this puts confidence in the team and gives them momentum.

The draw for the next round is on Monday evening and it should bring up a good game at a neutral venue. Bring it on.