*Clare midfielder, Tadhg Lysaght. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Clare’s support play in the victory over Waterford in the Munster minor championship first round was “out of the top drawer”.
That’s according to team manager Dermot Coughlan who, understandably, was very happy with the display and the result at Shannon. “It was very comfortable in the finish. The lads played good football and they moved the ball well at times. For a first game its very pleasing to get off to a win like that”.
The Kilmurry Ibrickane clubman believes that “we have great pace at the back and they are comfortable on the ball which is most important and when they broke, they broke at pace and that creates huge options down the field. We have players like that who are willing to rustle anywhere”.
Pace in Clare’s full-back line was an impressive facet in the display. “They are fantastic players, comfortable on the ball and willing to break but not alone that, they are able to do the most important job, they are able to defend. When you have players like that who can break and do their own job as well, they are priceless”.
Coughlan went on to say he was “absolutely delighted” with the impressive tally run up by the team. “The way the game started it was 0-2 to 0-0 after nine or ten minutes but the most important thing is we played through that. The lads never panicked they weren’t rushing their shots, they re-cycled the ball and when they found their range they kicked some good scores”.
“Having said that, we did get a lot of time on the ball today, the pressure wasn’t there. It’s not going to be like that the next day and it’s not going to be like that against Tipperary. There will be more pressure, they will be kicking under pressure and that will be the test for those players”, the manager said.
Looking ahead to next week’s clash with Limerick he said “Limerick in Rathkeale, its a do or die game for them. They have home advantage and they are going to be going all out. We are going to have to improve on tonight, everything will have to improve, our workrake, our shooting, out option taking if we are going to get a result down there.
“The most important thing is more games for this group. This is what we need and that is how we will improve. We spent two years because of Covid, without schools games and club matches and you could see the result last year. The performance was up today but we know we are going to have to improve. Limerick will be a tough ask down in Rathkeale”.
Referring back to last year’s campaign he noted “”We got bullied in Cusack Park, we played lovely football, we played the better football but when it came to the primary ball we couldn’t win it. We weren’t going to make that mistake this year,” the manager concluded.
