*Ikem Ugwueru breaks the tackle of Darren Keane. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
LISSYCASEY manager Aiden ‘Horse’ Moloney has said “it was a little bit of men against boys” after his charges fell to a fourteen point loss at the hands of championship favourites Éire Óg.
Successive defeats to Kilmurry Ibrickane and Éire Óg have left Lissycasey in a preliminary quarter-final of the TUS Clare senior football championship where they will face rivals Kildysart to compete for the last of the quarter-final places.
Speaking to The Clare Echo in the aftermath of their heavy loss to the Townies, Moloney commented, “it was a little bit of men against boys, physically we weren’t able to match them first and foremost but I think we held them at bay a little bit, we got a goal and I would say we didn’t even get a five minute spell to see if there was a little bit of a reaction to the goal or if we could build on it but we had a terrible mistake a minute later which gave them a goal straight away and it was heads down after that, we can have no complaints, they were miles the better team”.
Half-time saw Lissycasey change their goalkeeper with Thomas Collins replacing Killian Normoyle when they trailed 0-8 0-3. Moloney said the move was designed to improve their kickout retention. “In the modern game you can’t turnover the ball, we had a lot of turnovers the last day against Kilmurry Ibrickane, we gave away a lot more today and you just won’t compete at this level if you keep giving the ball whether it is kickouts or open play, our strategy for kickouts didn’t work and we changed it for the kickouts”.
Finishing with 1-6, their lowest return of the championship to date was a source of frustration for the former Clare footballer. “We missed a free before half time which could have brought it back to four points at half time, I’m not saying it would have done a whole pile but it would have given us a lift but we missed that one and one or two more in the second half, the game was over at that stage but 1-5 is nowhere near good enough but we will move on and hopefully live to fight another day. We’ll go away and lick our wounds and be back in two weeks time”.
Part of that effort to bounce back pits them in the play off with Kildysart. “We always knew this was a free shot as such, we had a few lads injured who we didn’t play or chance them today, hopefully our numbers will be stronger the next day”.
Moloney said they were very hopeful that county panellists Aaron and Shane Griffin would be available for selection in a fortnight, the duo went off injured in the Kilmurry Ibrickane game and missed the 2-17 1-6 loss to Éire Óg.
