This article is from page 71 of the 2011-03-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
CLARE manager Micheál McDermott had harsh words for his team in Cusack Park on Sunday after their hopes of promotion to Division 3 for 2012 were finally extinguished after their 0-16 to 1-10 defeat to Connacht champions Roscommon.
For 15 minutes he held his players in conclave, admitting to The Clare People afterwards that this latest defeat – their third of the campaign to date – wasn’t “good enough”.
However, in telling the players some home truths about the performance, McDermott says that the character is within the squad to bounce back for the challenges of the final three league games against and the Munster championship opener against Cork in June.
“The second half was good from Clare, but this is the bottom line: we threw it away.
“We threw away victory against Roscommon. To me we were the better team. We had chances to win that game and we just didn’t take them.
“When you have chances and you don’t take them, you get punished, especially against a good quality opposition like Roscommon. Roscommon really punished us.
“I take no defeat easily. We are as goo a team as the Connacht champions. In fact we were better than them, but we didn’t win. That’s very frustrating and not good enough. Our finishing let us down. Our options let us down. That’s not good enough,” said McDermott.
“We gave a performance we can feel proud of.
“We actually worked hard and upped our level of performance from our last couple of games.
“If we played like that against Carlow or Leitrim, we would have been sitting here still in contention to win this division and get promotion.”
“My view is that the league is never over until the final whistle in the final game is blown.
“We’re not going to be promoted this year, but we have to make sure that eight Longford, Fermanagh or Wicklow are not promoted on the back of a victory against us.
“Then we have to look to championship. I know the lads have the character.
“After the final whistle I would have been worried about where we go from here, but talking to them I know the character is in them to bounce back next week after pick it up again,” he added.