*Clare players celebrate. Photograph: Joe Buckley
CLARE played with no “real fear” to seal their place in the Munster region semi-finals of the Oscar Traynor, manager Denis Hynes has said.
Goals from Conor Finnucane and Charlie Morrison helped Clare to a 2-1 victory over Kerry on Sunday. Shannon’s Morrison struck in extra time to set up a semi-final tie with Limerick District League.
There had been uncertainty in the weeks leading up to the game as to who would take charge of Clare. Two-time Oscar Traynor winning manager Donie Garrihy called on a halt on his second stint as manager in July with little progress reported by the Clare District Soccer League (CDSL) over the following three months in appointing a successor.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Hynes explained that their preparations began ten days before the quarter-final. “It was a late call-up but the late ones are the best ones because you don’t have time to be mulling over it. We had ten days from start to finish, we kept it like Oscar Traynor always down through the years, we trust the clubs to do their work and we know when the lads come in during the week of a game that they will be in good shape”.
Seven of the twenty eight man squad picked for the side’s first session last Wedn (October 29th) were unavailable for the Kerry game, he said. “I was here for the League Cup final between Avenue and the Bridge, a good high scoring game with good intensity, it was really a preparation session, it may not have turned out like that because in the original squad we had thirteen lads named from the two teams. We did two nice sharp sessions during the week leading into today, we had a little bit more preparation than Kerry, at least the lads feel we have something behind us and we have a chance”.
Losing Ayoub Aguerram to a red card with eleven minutes played presented Clare with a rocky start to proceedings. “It was a reckless challenge, the Kerry fella is well marked from it. Knowing the nature of the players we have, we have plenty of energy and young lads who will cover the ground all day so it wasn’t a major issue from a physical point of view it was more if Kerry could hurt us and I thought we were comfortable enough I don’t think Shane (Cusack) had a save to make until midway through the second half. With our shape, our discipline, our attitude we had chances too, we should have gone ahead and eventually we did, Aaron Rudd came in and had an excellent game up top, Conor Finnucane did his hard work in the first half and was still cool and calm enough to take his goal”.
Young players making the step-up to the county colours have been aided by making the breakthrough with their respective clubs in the Premier Division, the Ennistymon man maintained. “I was hopeful we would get a chance after they equalised. You will always give up corners and free kicks, Shane had made a great save to keep it 0-0, I’m happy with the lads off the bench, we know the pedigree of the young lads from Clare and Munster Youths up along. I’ve challenged those young lads from a very young age to play Premier Division with their clubs so the Adam Kilkers, Aidan Moloneys, Kyle Kirbys, you can see they are playing Premier Division soccer so they are used to that intensity. We had no real fear and had the likes of Nathan (Boaventura) to come off the bench, he is made for extra time because he is cool and calm, he takes that extra second and he picked out a great ball for Charlie Morrison to finish”.
