This article is from page 71 of the 2011-03-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
‘SHOOTING FISH in a barrell’ and ‘cakewalk’ were just some of the phrases that could be heard exiting Cusack Park on Sunday as Clare had a 31 point victory over Down. What Ger O’Loughlin and his backroom team of Danny Chaplin, Liam Doyle and Fiach O’Loughlin actually learned from this bloodless affair was debatable but considering their last league performance in Clare headquarters against Limerick, manager O’Loughlin was content to take the points ahead of tougher tests in the coming weeks.
“We started poor again. It took us ten or fifteen minutes to get into the game but once we found our feet, we were ok. The opposition was poor and then the two sendings off probably made a bit of a farce of the game really but in saying that, we’ll take it. We needed to get a good score and the confidence was there today for the lads. We had some good displays today but as I say, the opposition wasn’t great today so it was hard to read into what we will learn out of it. It’s two more points on the board anyway.”
His opposite number, Down manager Gerard Monan was full of chat this time last year when travelling to Clare for their opening league tie but he wasn’t as forthcoming this time around, preferring to stay silent, possibly due to the two sendings off that essentially wrecked any hopes of keeping the game competitive according to O’Loughlin.
“The second sending off killed the game. I think they lost a lot of heart after that as well and after 15 minutes of the second half, the game was over and there was no shape to it. But that’s not our fault so we will take our win and hopefully we’ll keep improving. We have Kerry in two weeks, then Laois and Carlow so for those three matches, we will have to be at the top of our game. It’s in our own hands so hopefully we can keep improving.”
“All the lads go back to the clubs for the Under 21 championship on Thursday and Sunday, and we have a challenge match on Thursday against Cork without the Under 21’s so it gives a chance to other lads and we will possibly have another game on Sunday against Dublin so we will see how that goes.”
And just before the Clarecastle native exited the field for warmer environs, he gave one last summary of the 5-22 to 0-06 scoreline.
“I thought we got some good scores but perhaps at times we had too much room and we might not learn a whole lot out of it. We just have to take the positives out of it and there were plenty of positives.”