Déise’s three-play drama
The experience of John Mullane, Eoin Kelly and Seamus Prendergast in attack, Stephen Molumphy in midfield and the clever substitutions by manager Michael Ryan, which had a huge impact down the stretch, saw Waterford home against a young Banner outfit who had five players wearing distance measuring GPS systems and whose high work rate never lapsed.
No one at the game could have quibbled with a draw. But ultimately this game was decided by three plays – Waterford’s two goals in the first half and the brilliant save by Stephen O’Keefe from Clare’s Conor McGrath in the closing minutes. If Clare had a plan to negate ‘Brick’ Walsh’s influence it wasn’t clear to me. Forcing him to clear the ball under pressure, without fouling, should have been the first port of call in terms of tactics. The long delivery which led to the Waterford penalty came from a free awarded for a high tackle by Sean Collins on Walsh.
Eoin Kelly’s penalty was expertly struck and virtually unstoppable but Cian Dillon, Clare’s best defender, will have learned a salient lesson in full-back play from the lead up play. A full-back might get away with some tugging and dragging in a tussle but hands on facemasks is a no-go and yellow card zone.
There’s an old defensive maxim “when in doubt flake it out” and Clare keeper Patrick Kelly will remember this for a long time. He will be very disappointed with the concession of their second goal.
Kelly only needed to knock the ball towards the corner flag but failed to control it and was punished by the inrushing Shane Walsh.
That goal came from a long Stephen Molumphy delivery after good work by Brick Walsh. Molumphy ruled midfield in the first-half although Clare captain Pat Donnellan battled well. Brick Walsh had 10 possessions in the first half, using all intelligently. Although Clare centre-forward John Conlon scored 1-2, all in the first half, his influence faded after the break and Clare failed to exploit the scoring potential of Conor McGrath, who was starved of quality possession.
Clare went ahead in the 50th minute thanks to a long range free by keeper Kelly but they had to wait nine minutes for their next point, a converted free by Nicky O’Connell. At that stage, Waterford hadn’t registered a score for 14 minutes. Crucially, Ryan introduced Paul O’Brien off the bench and the move worked perfectly — the new man won two frees in quick succession which were pointed by Maurice Shanahan while Richie Foley hit a monster effort from left half back after Fergal Lynch was adjudged to have over-carried. These scored frees along with a fine point by John Mullane, set up by the influential Seamus Prendergast, gave Waterford the advantage down the stretch.
The stats for the final 13 minutes are a good illustration of the game overall: full of determined effort and excitement with lots of little errors.
Maurice Shanahan tapped over a free in the 61st minute while another sub, Martin O Neill, fired over the final point, set up by Thomas Ryan after a vital interception by Stephen Daniels. In the closing minutes, Ryan had the chance to finish the game when he burst through but with Maurice Shanahan in the ideal supporting position, Ryan elected to shoot himself and was hooked. Then O’Keefe came to Waterford’s rescue with that tremendous save from McGrath. Clare’s John Conlon had three possessions but they all came to nothing; Nicky O’Connell, who received a blow to the head earlier missed a difficult free and a 65. Darech Honan, short of match practice missed a gilt edged goal chance and then the inexperienced Liam Markham, who struck a poor wide earlier took the wrong option and was dispossessed. Jonathan Clancy failed to pick a ball as he bore down on goal and Clare failed to score for the final 10 minutes.
Frenetic stuff all through but in the final analysis the Déise’s first-half goals and O’Keefe’s late save decided this contest.
