*Clare senior football manager, Paul Madden. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
PAUL MADDEN was not afraid to call it as he saw it when describing Clare’s National Football League record as “horrendous” during his first campaign as county manager.
It started with a spirted showing away to favourites Down when it finished with a five point defeat but had the feeling of a one-score game. It ended with a one point loss to Sligo in a tie that Clare spurned six goal chances in the second half and led by five points with a one man advantage but still came out on the losing side.
Sunday’s game against Sligo served as Clare’s fourth loss in seven games and saw the county finish sixth and just above the drop in Division 3 when a week previous promotion was still within reach, only for a costly first half display versus Wexford to materialise.
Madden was very frustrated when looking back on their 2-23 0-28 loss to Sligo. “It shouldn’t have gone either way, it should have gone our way, we had more chances there to win that game than we’ve had in the whole six games before this, it was just shocking that we weren’t putting the ball over the bar or even the goal chances were wide open, I think we hand passed the ball wide three times and off the post three more times, we had three goal chances at the front, all that being said we were controlling the game and playing well but we gave two stupid passes away for their goals which should never have happened, it was Junior B stuff to be honest, it is very disappointing. We scored 0-28 and missed another lot behind that, to lose the game is hugely frustrating”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, he admitted that Clare’s league record from his first season in charge has left a lot to be desired. “Four defeats is a horrendous record, we’re not happy about that, we aspire to better than that but we have four weeks to get our act together for the Munster semi-final in Ennis”.
Cheap turnovers led to Kyle Cawley and Cian Lally getting goals within the space of four minutes. “Mistakes happened, we let them in for goals and they were killer goals to give away, we had no reason to be giving the ball away, we had an extra man and we just had to keep moving our legs but it didn’t transpire and we lose by a point”.
He added, “We weren’t happy with the start, maybe we were still on the bus for the first ten minutes but I said at half time that I was very pleased that in two of the games when teams got a run at us we capitulated, that didn’t happen today to be fair which was pleasing but to come out losing by a point is hard to fathom”.
Had it been a must-win game, it is likely that Dermot Coughlan, Brian McNamara, Cillian Rouine and Darragh Bohannon would all have featured in Markievicz Park. “The lads are getting there but they are not one hundred percent, if this was the last game of the year both Brian and Dermot would have played but it isn’t, they still have a niggle so we have to mind them”.
During Sunday’s game, Clare’s entire half-back line of Connor Meaney, Fionn Kelleher and Brendy Rouine went off injured, “That is a worry particularly Brendy’s at the end,” Madden admitted.
When asked if there was anything Clare were doing in training that was causing such a high amount of players to be injured, the Ennis man stated, “I think if you talk to any other county manager, they will tell you the way the game is gone that injuries are a huge part of it, it is a frantic pace, it is up and down, you have to be going at one hundred miles an hour all the time. Any of my counterparts that I’ve spoken to are in the same boat, the injuries today were collision injuries, they are one-offs and can happen at training, any of the muscular injuries are just part of the game”.
Attention now switches to the Munster championship where Clare host All-Ireland and provincial champions Kerry on April 25th. “We’ve a Munster semi-final in Ennis and that is one hundred percent our focus now, the league is over and we move on”.
