*Aaron Griffin is Lissycasey’s main injury doubt. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
LISSYCASEY have “nothing to fear” when they meet championship favourites Éire Óg in the third round of the Clare SFC on Saturday evening.
It’s still all to play for in Group 1 of the Clare SFC. Éire Óg have two wins from two and a third victory will see them hold top spot and advance directly to the quarter-finals.
Should Lissycasey prevail and Kilmurry Ibrickane as expected overcome Kilmihil then they and Éire Óg will be on four points meaning scoring difference will be required to determine who tops the group, who finishes second and which club will be in third position and competing in the preliminary quarter-final.
Round two against Kilmurry Ibrickane was “without a doubt” the toughest test of the year to date for Lissycasey, manager Aiden Moloney maintained. It’s a big wide open field, a fast surface, I was pleased with our effort, our attitude, our game plan was half decent but we were struck by the two injuries in the first half and it really took away our cutting edge up front a little bit even though we struggled for scores, we fought hard but Kilmurry Ibrickane in the second half always looked like they had too much for us”.
Their cause was of course weakened when both Aaron Griffin and Shane Griffin were forced off with injuries, Aaron in the first half and Shane in the second. “It was but in fairness to them they kept the heads up and kept working, they didn’t throw in the towel or anything like that which would have been easy when you see those players go off but they kept the head down. We had a lot of possession in front of goals which we didn’t make use of and that is going to have to improve if we are to make any progress but I’d be happy that we got a lot of primary possession in the danger zone but from early in the first half we had a couple of goal chances, maybe not so much the goal chances in the second half but we had the possession to threaten but our last pass was very poor on the day”.
Aaron didn’t hurl for Ballyea in their second round win over Clooney/Quin on Friday evening. “Aaron has a touch of cramp or hamstring, we took him off more as a precaution than anything, there’s no point in doing damage. Shane might have twinged his knee a little bit,” Moloney said.
Given that the final margin was three points, it is a simple definition to say the difference was Kilmurry Ibrickane took their penalty which was converted by Keelan Sexton and Lissycasey paid the price for David Sexton saving Conor Finnucane’s shot. Horse acknowledged it was simple yet but accurate but questioned if the Bricks deserved their penalty, “I’m not sure it was a penalty, I think there was a blatant push on Darren Keane a bit before that, very poor”.
A three-time Clare SFC winning manager with his native Kilmurry Ibrickane, Moloney walked the line against his native club in the second round. “Everyone understands, I gave five good years to Kilmurry Ibrickane and I had some really great times with the boys, we all move on and take other teams, we like to be involved and when we can’t be involved with our own we’ll be somewhere else, the boys understand that and I’ll still go away and have a pint with them this evening,” he told The Clare Echo.
Cusack Park will be their setting once again as Lissycasey face strong opposition, this time in the guise of Éire Óg, champions of 2021 and 2022. “Hopefully we can get all the bodies available and on the field, we’ve nothing to fear, the boys will get a bit of confidence from this game, there’s no doubt it was a good test, we were looking at a pretty full Kilmurry Ibrickane team and I think our lads acquitted themselves well today and there is a lot we can take from it and a lot to work on”.
“If we can turn fifty percent of that possession we had in front of goals into scores or even good scoring chances and convert them then I think we’re a match for anyone but that is still to come. We’re still a work in progress, we’ve a lot of young lads, that was a learning experience for the younger fellas out there, they tried hard but they see they are still only seventeen or eighteen some of them and we think they are twenty five or twenty six but that is the level they have to get up to, that is the good about today, whether we have a quarter-final or a play off in the future it’s still a good learning curve for the boys,” he concluded.
