This article is from page 70 of the 2011-04-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG
JOHN O’Neill was jubilant at the defiance shown by his team as they stormed to victory over the Poor Clares. Naturally, Micheál McDermott was at the other end of the spectrum too as surveyed the wreckage of another hugely disappointed National League day.
The defeats to Leitrim and Carlow could be put down to the fact that Clare were reduced to 13 for much of the game; the loss to Roscommon was all down to not kicking the ball between the posts when opportunity knocked.
Not excuses, but explanations.
There were no explanations on Sunday, however. Clare were that bad – that was by their own body language as the trooped off the field and McDermott’s language as he strug- gled for answers as to why it went so badly wrong.
“It was very, very lacklustre after those first 15 minutes. To put a finger on what happened, why was the performance so poor, it’s almost impossible,” admitted McDermott.
“We are very disappointed, not alone with the loss, but with the performance. We got a very good start, played really well for the first 15 minutes and played good quality football. But after that everything just drifted away from us.
“Fermanagh got a grip around midfield and the whole diamond area around midfield and held it for most of the match.
“They kicked some really good quality scores and caused us a lot of trouble. The players are gutted. It wasn’t for the want of effort. It just wasn’t happening for them,” added McDermott.
This time last year Clare a kick of a ball away from promotion to Division 3 when they played Limerick in their seventh match of the campaign after six straight wins – David Tubridy’s kick with the last kick of the game from distance drifted just wide and since then Clare have lost six out of nine league games.
“It has been a very disappointing league results wise and points wise,” said McDermott after this latest loss, “but when we compare it to last year, when we were on the crest of a wave for the first six matches, I would say we have played better football this year and are better prepared because results aren’t going our way.
“Roscommon are promoted already and we produced one of our best performances against them but left it behind us.
“Longford are in second place and we beat them. Carlow are also in contention and we left the two points behind against them when we were down to 13 players.
“Our injuries are hitting us big time. We lost Graham Kelly who came down with bug on the way to the match. Rory Donnelly is out, Timmy Ryan is only coming back from injury. But we’re not using that as an excuse. We just now have to try and pick it up for the match against Wicklow.”