This article is from page 101 of the 2008-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 101 JPG
AS THE crowd filtered out of Co- oraclare and the emotion of a late penalty faded, it was easier to draw a clearer picture of the game. Some improvements, some things to work One
James Hanrahan, Clare selector and a link to the great days of Clare football, provided a slice of the half- empty/half-full reaction.
A good finish, but a below par per- formance.
“Tt didn’t look like we were going to do it at the end, and I’m pleased that we dug out the win. But we had a lot of possession and we didn’t use it. That was very frustrating.”
As expected, Limerick provided a bulkier challenge and Hanrahan says the step-up was noticeable.
“It was a lot more physical. It goes to show that there’s a big difference between colleges and inter-county. The lads were up against older fellas who were a lot stronger and at times
it took us a while to get going.
“We played bad but we won. That’s all you can say really and it might be character-building to do that, but there’s no way we’ll win if we play like that against Carlow next week. Carlow are going to be a major step- up in class again and we have to 1m- priove from today. We struggled at times, but defended well.”
He returns once more to the clos- ing stages of the game and Clare’s refusal to give-in
“We haven’t been under pressure in the last three games and we were under fair pressure today. We came through, which was the main thing. The lads kept battling – that was promising — but we won’t get carried AE Ale