This article is from page 76 of the 2007-10-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 76 JPG
DESPITE a disappointing perform- ance, Clare League chairman Jim Madden remained upbeat after Sun- day’s four nil defeat to East Cork / West Waterford.
The concession of two first half goals and the failure to exert sus- tained pressure on their opponents saw Clare suffer a costly defeat.
This was Clare’s only home game in the group stages and they now face tough away assignments against the Munster Senior League and the Lim- erick League.
There were a number of new faces on the Clare side and Madden was pleased with the performance and attitude of the younger players, most of whom were making their debut in the competition.
He said, “It was disappointing, we conceded a few soft goals in the first half. But a good feature of the game was that we were able to introduce so many new young players. There were a number of players missing through injury and others were unavailable because of prior commitments. We brought 22 players to a meeting in Newmarket and of that 22, six were missing on Sunday. It was disap- pointing but I was pleased with the attitude, they worked hard”.
Clare suffered an early blow with the loss of promising left back Eoin O’Brien through injury and believes this had an unsettling effect on Clare’s performance.
“We gave a lot of new players a run out. Guys like Derek Fahy, Eoin O’Brien and Evan Glynn. The injury to young O’Brien, I thought made
it hard for us. We had to make an early substitution and move our back line around. Because we were miss- ing a few players, we had to draft in a few new lads. Three of the back four were making their debuts in the Oscar Traynor and there were a few others who were making their first appearances as well. We couldn’t re- ally start David Russell because he is only on the way back from injury”
Though he admits preparations for Sunday’s game could have been bet- ter, Madden said it was important for new players to gain experience.
“We had a bit of experience in midfield with Mike O’Malley there. Gary Browne did well; he was an- other lad new to the scene. A lot of the squad that was there last year had been playing since 2003 and have given tremendous service to Clare. This year we needed to bring in a few new lads and we have been able to do that.
In advance of their meeting with the Munster Senior League, the Clare League will play two friendlies, one against Limerick side Hill Celtic on November 6 and another against the Desmond League on November 13.