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*Clonlara’s Cathal Tots O’Connell in action against the Hegartys, James and Fred. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLONLARA view their final round opponents Inagh/Kilnamona as the best team so far in this year’s Clare SHC.
2023 champions Clonlara need a win over Inagh/Kilnamona on Saturday (16:30) in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg to qualify for the quarter-finals, a defeat coupled with a Ballyea win over St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield would eliminate the South-East Clare side from the championship.
Securing the necessary result against Inamona will be a tough ask, Clonlara manager Donal Madden stressed. “That won’t be easy though as I’ve seen most teams so far in the championship and Inagh/Kilnamona have been the best so far in my opinion so we know the task ahead”.
Late points from Ian Galvin and Aidan Moriarty managed to rescue a draw for Clonlara who trailed by two points in additional time against Ballyea a fortnight ago. “I know we equalised at the end but we feel it’s a point lost to be honest as we were very disappointed with our second half performance. We were in a really good position at half-time but we feel that in the second half we wasted a lot of ball, our work-rate was down, our tackling was down so we’re really disappointed”.
Donal felt Clonlara didn’t hit the levels they are capable of reaching. “The wind was tricky but even still we’re way better than that. We’ve too much effort and commitment put in to play like that so we’re just really gutted with that performance”.
He told The Clare Echo, “The guys did dug it out at the end and a point is better than none but we shouldn’t have been in that position to be honest as we hit too many wides, lost too many tackles and make too many mistakes. We had enough possession in the second half to be at least six or seven points up so we shouldn’t have really been in that position at the end. The positives are that we’re still in it and we could very well been out of it had things been different for a finish so we have to go the next day and get a result”.
