*Emmet McMahon was Clare’s top scorer. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
THE opening six minutes in Sunday’s division 3 Allianz football league tie in Corrigan Park “killed Clare”.
That’s according to the Clare manager Peter Keane as he reflected on their three point loss to Antrim in what was his first league outing as county manager.
“We were down seven points after six minutes and that six minutes killed us. From a scoring point of view, if you look at the next almost seventy minutes, we won the game”, commented Peter.
Continuing he noted “in the second half up to the twenty fourth minute we held them without a score as we defended very well. They they were awarded a free as we were penalised under the new rules and they converted”.
That said the manager believed “there were plenty of plusses” but he lamented “if we could only take those first six minutes out”.
Continuing he said “we must learn from that and now the focus is on this Sunday. I have never seen conditions so bad. Down here in South Kerry we play our divisional competition in winter time but we have never experienced playing conditions as bad”.
Asked about the new rules he said “the three man up is very difficult. A fella can very easily step outside if you are chasing someone and the penalty is that the ball is brought up 50m”.
The focus now is very much on the team’s first home game on Sunday when Leitrim will provide the opposition.
Leitrim’s league opener against Laois fell foul to the weather but Keane was not so sure if this would be a disadvantage to their Connacht counterparts. “They will be fresh whereas fellas who played last week, particularly in the very difficult conditions that prevailed, are likely to be carrying knocks”.
