This article is from page 112 of the 2010-02-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 112 JPG
ALL things considered, Clare came away from Shannon with some posi- tives on Sunday. Leave the score- board aside for now and consider the following: Armagh are one of the most respected outfits in the country and have been for the past few years; Armagh have been training for the league for three months; Clare have just attained senior status and be- cause of the length of last season due to their success, they have only a handful of training sessions under WeColbmmo Loi
“I was pleased with our perform- ance,’ said Clare trainer David O’Brien.
“We knew going into the game that Armagh would be more advanced
than us in terms of their preparation so I would read more into our first- half performance than our second.
“I though in that first-half we bat- tled well against the wind and only for conceding a couple of late points, we would have gone in ahead at the ley usr eae
He said he was also impressed by the younger members of the team.
“There were a couple of young players out there and they equipped themselves very well. We’re missing four or five players who would have added a physical presence in the sec- ond-half and that has to be taken into account as well.
“So ’m happy enough. We’ll con- tinue to blood new players in the league and build from there and hopefully we’ll pick up a couple of
points and make a semi-final.”
He said the attitude of his players was also impressive.
“They’re disappointed, which to me, says a lot about their ambition. They didn’t just accept defeat from a strong Armagh side. They feel they should have been closer in the end.
“And that’s the attitude we need at this level. We said at the start of the year that senior was a different story to intermediate. You’ll only get 14 or 15 chances at this level and you’ll have to take 80 per cent of those to win a game. At intermediate, you might get 20 chances and if you take half, you’ll win.”