This article is from page 97 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 97 JPG
CLARE manager Joe Garry was left to rue a string of missed chances fol- lowing his side’s defeat to Kerry in the semi-final of the Munster junior championship on Sunday.
Clare trailed by six points at half time after passing up two glorious opportunities to take a decisive lead early in the first half. Kerry made no mistake in front of goal Mike O’Donoghue and the impressive Ni- all Fleming finding the net.
Brian Donnellan’s late penalty re- duced Kerry’s lead to five points with eight minutes remaining. Clare were awarded a second penalty two min- utes later but this time Donnellan’s
shot struck the foot of the post and Pat Nagle was unable to convert the rebound.
Standing on the pitch at Fitzgerald Stadium shortly after the final whis- tle, Garry paid tribute to his side’s resilience in the second half.
“In fairness to the lads, it didn’t look great going in at half time two goals down. But they stuck into it”, said Garry. “We spoke about it at half time, its easy to play football when things are going well, when the going got tough and it got tough here today, they deserved more out of the game. We had plenty of chances and in fairness you have to take your hat off to everyone of them. They fought manfully in the second half.”
Garry felt his side shaded the second half but acknowledged that against a side like Kerry, with three members of the Kingdom’s All-Ireland under 21 wining team in their ranks, Clare needed to take their chances.
““T thought we were the better team in the second half but unfortunately it comes down to chances. We creat- ed maybe five or six chances during the course of the game and we come of with I-7 or 1-8 whatever it was and you have to better than that when you take on Kerry.”