*Clare’s senior footballers stand for the national anthem. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE football manager Peter Keane has said he was more focused on ensuring relegation to Division 4 was not a worry for his side rather than keeping a promotion to the second tier alive in advance of their latest victory.
Wins over Leitrim, Fermanagh and a previously unbeaten Kildare have seen Clare bounce back from a disappointing opening round loss to Antrim to stay on track in their bid to return to Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League which they were relegated from in 2023.
Speaking following Clare’s two point win over Kildare, Keane emphasised the importance of winning in Cusack Park or as it has since been christened Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg. “I wasn’t overly focused on promotion, the focus here was to win our home games, you want to win your home games no matter what your aim is, when I was in Kerry for three years we lost one home game, you need to be very strong at home, it needs to mean something and to mean something to the supporters, the key is to win home games.
“We were on four points and we needed to get to six points because hopefully six would stave off relegation, no matter what group you’re in your priority is not to get relegated down, the key was to get the two points to make sure we weren’t in a relegation situation, we’ve Sligo next weekend who put up a great battle against Fermanagh, they were very unlucky not to come out of it with a win, that will build them up because they are a very good team who ran Galway very close in the championship last year, there’s very good teams in Division 3 this year, the key was to make sure we weren’t in a relegation situation and thanks be to God we aren’t”.
Traits shown by Clare in their latest victory have left supporters on a high as evident by the amount of former players and mentors that managed to get on Cusack Park to congratulate players. “It was a great battling victory, we’re happy to come out of us, but again it is only two points, it is one game, it wasn’t looking so sweet there at midway or three quarters way through that second half, we went down a point but the lads never gave up and they showed great spirit, great heart and an appetite for work”.
A strong opening half where they built up a six point advantage was a big help on their way to overcoming Kildare. “It was a very good performance, there was a strong wind, we had that wind advantage in the first half and funnily enough I think the wind got stronger in the second half when we were against it, we were very much dead but we got a break when they breached the halfway line and it gave us a lifeline. Funnily enough, we were playing Antrim a few weeks ago and they were totally out of the game, and something similar happened and they got back into the game and you know there are small things that that that get you going”.
Kicking nine wides over the course of seventy minutes was not going to draw ire from Keane who is encouraging his charges to take on the scoring opportunities. “If they don’t back themselves they are never going to score, you have to trust them, you’re looking for lads to bring training to the game, if they’re doing it in training then why can’t they do it in a game, you have to go after them and trust them, that is the ethos as a management that we have, we’re working hard and trying to develop lads, trying to get them ready for the next game and the next game”.
One such well-taken opportunity was Keelan Sexton’s match-winning goal on seventy two minutes. “It was a fantastic finish but just before that we had gone through three or four times but the last pass didn’t work, what was really positive was we were creating the space and opening them up, maybe taking the wrong option and kicking it wide, we were creating the opportunities to make it happen. If you’re making chances then you have a chance but you’ve no chance if you are not creating chances”.
Kildare’s dominant stages in the game saw them cut open the Clare defence which Peter acknowledged they have to improve on. “I think a lot of that came from turnovers that we had, you know, we got exposed so that’s something, we need to mind that ball a bit better and not cause ourselves turnovers, which is going to cause somebody a heart attack somewhere along the way”.
Although he wore number sixteen, Mark McInerney was introduced as a substitute out the field. When asked by The Clare Echo if this was planned in advance, Keane replied, “If a fella is here there is a plan for him to come on and again only five lads can come on, you don’t bring a fella just for the spin. He came on, it was something we were looking at, we were probably going to put him on earlier, then we got the goal so we were probably looking at a bit more defensive then for a while, so we held him for that few moments, you know. We’re very happy, we had great support here today, there was a great crowd here today, funnily enough, I saw I saw a good few people here from Kerry here today, I don’t know whether they were on their way home from the Mayo game or what, but they seem to be giving us a bit of support here as well so I met a good few of them here after the game”.
