*Clare football manager, Mark Fitzgerald. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE senior football manager, Mark Fitzgerald has heralded the attitude and application shown by his panel of players since they commenced preparations in November.
Fitzgerald’s National Football League campaign began with a one point win at home to Sligo in what is expected to be one of the trickier assignments in Division 3.
For the majority of the second half, Clare played with an extra man’s advantage after Luke Towey’s sending off on forty minutes, the numerical difference became greater when Sligo were reduced to thirteen men with Paul Kilcoyne picking up a second yellow card on fifty eight minutes.
How Clare used the advantage is something that needs work, the manager acknowledged. “Our game management was not where it should be but first day out with a lot of new bodies you’d be happy enough going away”.
Had Clare failed to collect a win given that they had two extra men and missed a penalty through Mark McInerney there would be have been plenty of criticism levelled in their direction. “Missing a penalty and the man advantage, we missed another goal chance and kicked four bad wides on the bounce so from that point of view we would have been disappointed if we didn’t win. A lot of the lads stood up at the end and we started to get good turnovers and we brought a bit of energy from that, for the first day out that is what you want”.
He was hopeful the opening round would stand to the Clare players as they begin their 2024 run, “The one thing you can’t give guys is experience, that game will stand to a few more of them, we got a few more on and would have liked to get a few more on but it became a bit chaotic at the end, had you a three or four point lead going in you could have worked on a few more things”.
“Those lads to a man have been brilliant since I’ve got here, we have three or four to get on board, they will be in good shape, we’ve to dust ourselves down and get ready for Westmeath which won’t be easy,” the Tralee native added.
This character shown by Clare allowed them to bounce back from a shaky opening quarter where Sligo dominated on the possession stakes but also the beginning of the second half when they lost Aaron Griffin to a black card and conceded a very soft goal to Sean Carrabine. “Not alone the black card but we had possession running through and we turned it over, it ricocheted for a penalty so from that point of view it was a game that had everything but it was good value if you paid in for it anyway”.
When putting his name in the ring to succeed Colm Collins, the ex Limerick manager was aware there would be transition but not to the extent that has transpired, he admitted. “Not as many, I knew it would be in double digits, you like a challenge, life is boring if you don’t take a risk or a challenge on, we’ve a couple of lads to come back too, we’ve good lads”.
