*Clare manager, Peter Keane. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE’s senior footballers are disappointed to have missed out on promotion to Division 2 especially after beating the two teams making the jump to the second tier.
Kildare and Offaly were both defeated by Clare in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Cíosóg during the course of this year’s Allianz National Football League but away losses to Antrim and Sligo proved costly and ensured the Banner County will be facing a third season on the trot in Division 3.
“It is disappointing, we all finished on the same amount of points, we beat the two of them and we’re staying at home and everyone else is going to the dance,” reflected Clare manager Peter Keane
A final round win over Offaly by a margin of five points was not sufficient for Clare who needed a victory by ten points to secure promotion. “The outcome in a sense of promotion we didn’t get, it was always going to be a stretch to think you would win a game by ten or eleven points, Kildare probably had the handier of the fixtures today, the priority was to win the game at home, winning your home games is very important, we did that, it wasn’t looking like it at half time but we got out of it”.
Keane was very frustrated with Clare’s wastefulness in the opening half which saw them kick eleven wides and miss two goal chances. “I thought we played very well in the first half but poor on the scoreboard, our efficiency was terrible in the first half, we played exceptional in the second half, we went after the game. The wind we had in the first half was actually very difficult to play with even though we had it, Offaly in that second half only got four points with that strong wind, one of them was a two pointer, the key was to win the game, if something happened after that it would happen. By virtue of having a poor start, we left something like 2-4 after us in the first eight or nine minutes, I think we had twelve wides in the first half, you’re not helping yourself then when you don’t finish that”.
Jack Bryant’s goal on eleven minutes put Offaly in front and undid a bright Clare start. More worryingly for him and his management was how the major resembled Ronan Coffey’s goal for Laois a week previous. “A lot of times, this is one of the things, if you don’t kill the ball above then you’re in trouble, if you don’t mind the ball it allows someone else to go with the solo and go, it makes it very difficult, I probably felt we had a right good call early in that second half for a penalty but we didn’t get it”.
As the league progressed Clare’s team has settled with the return of Dermot Coughlan and Ronan Lanigan from injury plus the final round move of Cillian Rouine to centre back. “Fionn had been doing quite well there in other games, one of the things myself Peter and Eoin have been looking to do is put a bit of depth in the panel, we used something like twenty seven players throughout the league, we gave seven or eight fellas debuts throughout, we’re trying to build a squad because you won’t do it with just fifteen players,” Keane said.
Having missed out on promotion Munster becomes the be all and end all for Clare so far as qualifying for the All-Ireland series is concerned. “We’ll be playing either Tipperary or Waterford, you just try win that game and see where that brings you, if you don’t win that game you have a different path and we’ll have to go on that path”.
