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*Dannan Fox gets away from Enda Madden. Photograph: Ruthie Griffin.
HAVING failed to score a goal in their opening round draw with Cratloe, Clooney/Quin bagged 4-11 in the first half of their dominant victory over Feakle.
Manager Fergal Lynch felt the foundations for their win were laid in that opening half by which they held a sixteen point advantage.“We had a great start, we had a strong breeze in the first half and we capitalised on that. Feakle then, they were coming into play with a really good breeze in the second half, but I suppose the damage was done for us in the first half,” he said.
After keeping a clean sheet and grabbing four green flags themselves, Lynch felt the 4-17 to 0-13 victory was a much more complete performance than their share of the spoils against Cratloe a fortnight ago.
He told The Clare Echo, “We conceded a goal the last day in the first round against Cratloe and we didn’t have any goal threat at all. That was something we had addressed and we had worked on during the last two weeks, so thankfully that has come off. Cratloe had five goal chances the last day and we had a plus one that day and we were disappointed with it, so we rectified that and thankfully we came through”.
Last year’s beaten county finalists got a return of 4-10 from their starting front-six with late changes Darragh McNamara and Jerry O’Connor scoring 2-0 and 1-2 respectively. “Peter [Duggan], and Jack [O’Neill], and Jerry [O’Connor] had a great impetus in the half-forward line, we just made a few changes there. We brought in Darragh McNamara after a long layoff with his hips since the county final last year so it’s great that they’re getting game time and the lads are playing with a little bit of freedom and a smile on their face”.
Heading into their final group-stage game against O’Callaghan’s Mills, Clooney/Quin sit at the top of Group 3 unbeaten on three points. However, their fate is yet to be decided, with Cratloe, Feakle, and the aforementioned O’Callaghan’s Mills all still in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.
“As I said to the players there, this is very similar to what happened us last year, we’d a very poor performance against Broadford, came through by the skin of our teeth, performed really well against Inagh/Kilnamona and then not so well against Corofin in the third round. This is step two of six steps and we’re going to get ourselves ready for the Mills in step three and whatever happens after that happens,” he concluded.
