This article is from page 71 of the 2011-03-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
THE 2011 National Hurling League campaign may have started badly for Clare with a home defeat to Limerick, but the county now stands on the cusp of back-to-back final appearances.
Victory over Laois in Portlaoise this coming Sunday would all but guarantee Clare’s safe passage to another decider and another showdown with arch-rivals and closest neighbours Limerick.
However, to achieve this goal manager Ger O’Loughlin has warned that players must “raise their game to the next level” against an improving Laois side.
“We’re bordering on being good enough for Division 1 hurling,” O’Loughlin told The Clare People ahead of Sunday’s crunch tie in O’Moore Park, “but there are times that we look as if we’re a Division 2 team as well”.
And, the two-time All-Ireland winner is in no doubt that Clare need to produce “Division 1 form” to overcome the potential banana skin of Laois away from home.
“We will need to up our performance from the Kerry game,” O’Loughlin said after Clare’s com- prehensive 20-point victory in Cusack Park last Saturday. “This game against Laois will be a case of winner takes all.
“Even though we put up a big score against Kerry (6-23), we still have to improve. We’re still conceding too much and we’re indecisive in some of the things we’re doing.
“I would say we have a huge amount of work to do. I thought our backs were in trouble a lot ot times against Kerry, especially our full-back line who have been playing well.
“We will get punished a lot more next week if we’re not sharper in defence.
“This game against Laois is the one. If we win we’ll will be in the final. It’s up in Portlaoise. It’s not an easy one. We scraped through against Laois last year, probably with more seasoned players that we had this year. I just hope we pick it up and bring it to the next level. That’s what we have to do,” added O’Loughlin.