*Clare’s Laurie Ryan. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
MAKING THINGS difficult for themselves appears to be par for the course with Clare’s ladies footballers in 2023, utility woman Laurie Ryan outlined.
Laurie, a former Clare captain returned to the fold for the championship. During the league, her focus was firmly on her commitments with Athlone Town.
She is one of the most experienced players within the youthful Clare side. Laurie is of the view that Clare are well used to battles but was extremely impressed with their second half showing.
“I think making hard work of things is in our nature but thankfully when we came out in the second half I don’t think we put much of a foot wrong. In terms of our work rate and our possession of the ball we improved a lot on the mistakes of the first half”.
A holder of multiple county championships with Banner Ladies, Laurie believes Clare have matured into a resilient outfit. “It took mental strength to do that after the interval because they had all the momentum from the last ten minutes of the first period. The way we didn’t panic and regrouped was impressive.
“There’s so many positives to take from that but there’s also work to be done especially with some lapses in concentration but having stuff to work on after winning is good really. It’s probably where you want to be going into a semi-final”.
Wayne Freeman has incorporated a certain approach to playing the game and has a settled side in place. Laurie feels that they are as a unit improving every time they take the field. “I think we are comfortable with our game plan and we are good at controlling the ball and playing to the pace that we want to play at. It’s taken a long time to get to this point but you can see how we are getting better all the time. We react quicker to things now then we used to in the past. Credit to Wayne and his management team. The coaching is of the highest standard”.
Antrim await in the semi-finals for what will be a novel tie, the Athlone IT lecturer flagged. “It’s exciting to be honest. I’ve never played Antrim in all my years. They are the form team, unbeaten in twenty matches since February 2022. But that gives us extra motivation, it provides us with the chance to topple them. They are an unknown quantity in one sense but they have won the Junior Championship last year, the Division 4 league this year and as we all know winning is definitely a habit But we have an opportunity that we cannot pass up”.
That opportunity comes twelve months on from last year’s heart breaking extra time defeat to eventual winners Laois. It’s an opportunity to be relished according to the Clare player. “Last year was heart breaking and we now have another chance to rectify the wrongs. That’s a huge driving force if I’m being honest. We won’t back down from the challenge and we will fight for everything. It’s a great panel of girls and all thirty push each other on. We have two weeks now to get ready and after last year we will do everything we can to get to Croke Park. These girls deserve to play there and we will give every ounce of energy we have to fulfil that goal”.
