*Nnabuike Nneji in action for Clare. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
HAVING come from two goals down to get back on level terms, Clare’s Oscar Traynor side “handed back the game” to Limerick by conceding a brace of goals in a minute to bow out in the Munster region semi-finals.
Goals from Nnabuike Nneji and Kyle Kirby saw Clare equalise with twenty minutes remaining in Saturday’s Oscar Traynor semi-final and in a position that few of the spectators in Frank Healy Park expected at half-time.
However Conor Coughlan picked up a hat-trick in Doora, bagging a brace in the space of sixty seconds as Clare totally lost their composure and subsequently missed out on qualifying for the provincial final of the competition.
Clare manager, Denis Hynes was frustrated with how they undid all their progress within a minute. “We had a poor first half, it was too passive, we tweaked it a bit at half time and we had a good effort for twenty minutes which got us back into it, then we shot ourselves in the foot, if we kept it to one goal at 3-2 you would have always had a chance off a free kick or something but conceding two goals in a minute like that. We tell the boys if something goes wrong try not double up on it so unfortunately we handed them back the game, the boys did well and they are a very honest bunch so they did well to bring it back to 2-2, it is a pity that in sixty seconds they undid all their hard work”.
Hynes told The Clare Echo, “You can’t be too harsh on the lads because they give everything but at this level you don’t come back from mistakes like that especially if one of our principles is if something goes wrong, calm down and clear the decks, we had a lot of younger lads on today, hopefully they will learn from that situation for the future”.
Absence of a striker led to Lissycasey’s Conor Finnucane who is lining out at midfield for Avenue Utd to operate up front for Clare in the opening half. The Clare manager acknowledged they missed an offensive presence. “You could see in the second half we basically retweaked the whole system, definitely Limerick had it far too easy in the first half, Conor made a super effort but it was a bit ask for him, we’d probably look back and say what we did in the first half certainly didn’t help us”.
Coach to Donie Garrihy’s side that won the competition on two occasions, the Ennistymon man has completed his first campaign as manager. “It is enjoyable especially when you see younger guys coming through and starting off, it is not too demanding but no more than the Youths here today, we do need everyone at full pelt to have a decent chance against the Corks and the Limericks, it is purely a numbers game, we were missing a couple of lads again today and it ensured we had to throw in some new lads but the lads were credible for that twenty minutes to get us back into the game but it is a big learning at this level because those Limerick lads don’t give you a second chance”.
Absence of experienced players from within the league was felt in their squad, he said. “In fairness the youngsters will always be there, it is the experienced players if you lose one or two or if one or two retire it is a lot of experience to try and replace, some of these young lads off the back of this will be approached for League of Ireland, that is just the nature of where we are with Clare football, we’re in the shop window if you do well and if young lads get the chance to go to League of Ireland it is definitely a bigger step up, it is a good sharpener for our clubs who will kick on in Munster and the FAI competitions in the New Year”.
