*Clare centre back James Hegarty. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE’S U20 hurlers have to ‘raise their levels’ to pick up successive wins in the Munster championship.
Unbeaten in two outings, Clare have yet to set the world alight but are well poised with three points from a possible four following an opening round draw with Cork and an away victory by a margin of seven points against Cork.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Clare manager Terence Fahy pointed out that emerging from Dungar-van with a win is not an easy task. “We finished the game strong and got a result in Dungarvan and delighted to get it. It was Waterford’s first game so this was always going to be a tough challenge. Ken McGrath and his team are in their second year in charge and as a result are gong to be well primed for this Munster Championship, especially in the first round at home. So we knew that was coming and we just weren’t able to get away from them, even with the wind and an extra man in the third quarter”.
Goals in either half, Fred Hegarty from the penalty spot and a clinical effort from James Organ in the second half were key scores, Fahy noted. “Our lads are honest and they worked hard and got there in the end. We got a few breaks and capitalised, James Organ got a great goal there to put some daylight between the teams. The goal before half-time from Fred from a penalty in which he won himself was a massive score, I think the key score in the game because they [Waterford] lost a man for a black card and we also went in leading at the break against the run of play you would say based on the second quarter of the game”.
Each outing presents plenty of learnings, the St Joseph’s Secondary Schol, Tulla teacher flagged. “The beauty of the round robin is that you’re learning every day whether that’s lessons or where you are strong, you’re still learning. So the aim is to constantly address any issues and effectively im-prove as you go”.
It’s back to O’Garney Park on Wednesday for Clare as they welcome Tipperary to Sixmilebridge for a 7pm start. Fahy is adamant an improvement is needed from his side as they face Brendan Cum-mins’ charges who lost to Tipperary in the opening round before bouncing back with an away win against Cork. “We’ve a big challenge next against Tipperary who have rebooted strong since their opening loss so we’re looking forward to that. We’ll have to improve an awful lot. We got a result today and we got a result the last day but we have to improve a lot in our performances to keep get-ting results in this competition.
“Look, we’ve three points out of four so far but we’ve now got a two week window to try and raise our levels for Tipperary,” he concluded.
