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*Cratloe’s Eoin Carey. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
YOUNG players have no choice but to step up for Cratloe’s senior hurlers, manager Alan Neville has outlined.
Cratloe trailed Clooney/Quin by four points at half time in round one but themselves in a glorious position to prevail when Rian Considine goaled with sixty two minutes played.
However, they failed to score again after this major with Clooney/Quin drawing level thanks to points from wing backs Daragh Keogh and John Cahill.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cratloe manager Alan Neville pointed to their missed goal chances in the opening half but praised how the South Clare side never lost their focus on getting a result. “Looking at the game in its full context, we started well and on then frontfoot with a number of great goal chances but we didn’t take them. So going in at half-time three or four points up, Clooney had that bit of momentum for the second half with the wind but I’m actually delighted with how our lads came out, stuck to the process and stayed in the game for as long as they could,
“Obviously getting ahead with that Rian Considine goal in injury-time, you’d like to have seen it out but you have to give credit to Clooney/Quin too, they kept their heads and got a couple of great scores to get something out of the game. I suppose they [Clooney-Quin] would have been disappointed that they squandered a good few points towards the end of the game so over the course of the game when you take in the goal chances we left after us in the first half and the points they left behind in the second half, maybe a draw was a fair enough result,” he added.
Character was a big takeaway for the two-time All-Ireland winner following the round one draw. “Look, when you go out in the first round of a championship, of course everyone wants to win but performance is a huge aspect and we did get a very good performance from our lads and a very good show of character too in their ability to stay in the game.
It is up to the younger players to set the way for Cratloe’s campaign, Neville maintained. “Eoin Carey, Cathal Lohan, Marc O’Brien, Riain McNamara and Jamie [Moylan], all of those lads came to the fore and they’re three years into their development now as senior hurlers so it’s time now that they do step up and continue to take on that responsibility”.
He lauded the showing of centre back Diarmuid Ryan who managed to keep Peter Duggan scoreless from play. “At the end of the day though, you can get away from Diarmuid Ryan’s performance. I thought his battle with Peter [Duggan] was immense the whole way through but we got to free him up in the last ten minutes and he was outstanding”.
O’Garney Park in Sixmilebridge hosts their second round tie with O’Callaghans Mills on Saturday (18:00). “It’s as you were for the second round now as we have to raise our game again to play the Mills who had been on an unbelievable run up until the Feakle match. They’ll be disappointed by that performance but that would be repeated it again as you can be sure that they’ll raise their game again to the levels they were performing in the Clare Cup. They’re going to be extremely hard to beat so when we meet up next Tuesday after the football, we’ll try and put our best foot forward and see where it takes us”.
