Eoin Cleary tries to scramble a pass together. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
THERE IS “no room left for error” among the Clare senior footballers as they face a massive battle to retain their status as a Division 2 side.
Speaking following Clare’s 3-10 1-08 loss at the hands of Cork on Sunday, manager Colm Collins voiced his dissatisfaction with the second half display. “It’s very disappointing, a disappointing second half performance. We left ourselves in a really good position at half time. We are very disappointed with the way we played in the second half. We got an opportunity straight after the penalty save to get a score and we didn’t”.
He felt Clare failed to reproduce some of the form shown in previous games. “The scores we have been getting in the last couple of games seem to abandon us today and we were that bit off. You need to be putting away every chance you get. This division is very tight and you can’t spurn the chances we spurned there. You have to constantly keep the scoreboard ticking over and that didn’t happen today.
“We did well in the first half albeit we still made some elementary mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. We turned over the ball fourteen times in that first half and that is not a winning stat. We were in a good position going into the second half which was very disappointing. Generally we have good shooters from distance and they have been nailing them. In the last two games they have been quite good but today it didn’t happen”.
A repeat tie between Clare and Cork takes place next month in the Munster SFC quarter-final but before then clashes with Derry and Limerick await as Collins’ side fight to stay in Division 2. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned before we meet again in the Munster championship. We need to tidy up a lot of things but that’s what we are tshere for. We hsve to go after the things we didn’t do so well and hopefully be a better team when we meet again. There is absolutely no room left for error now. We have two weeks to prepare for Derry and that’s it”.
Cork boss, John Cleary was far from happy with how his side fared in the opening half. “We weren’t a bit happy with what happened in the first half. We were fairly disgusted at half time and we said to the lads that it was time to get the lead out. We looked to be in a bit of bother as we would be facing the wind a point down. We just tore into it. It was either get stuck in or go down the road with our tails between our legs”.
A calm message was issued at half time where this was dealt with, he said. “We missed an awful lot too. We missed a penalty and maybe four goal chances. We are doing that every day. Someday it will come home big time to haunt us but as long as you win you can learn from that and hopefully the next day we can make those goal chances count. In fairness we got three today”.
He went on to say “We had a mixture out there, some of our players did play well while others didn’t. We will look at that during the week. The main thing is that we got over the line and those lads know they can work on their game for the Louth match which is another big away game for us”.
