Clare must take game to Tribesmen, says Lynch

WHILE he will only be a spectator for next weekend’s mouth-watering qualifier against Galway, Clare’s firebrand midfielder Colin Lynch believes his team’s fate lies in their own hands as they try to erase Sunday’s disappointment.

Lynch, dismissed in the Cork clash for an off-the-ball incident with Mickey O’Connell, will be a gaping absence in the Banner challenge.

Last year, when Clare announced their revival to the country against Galway in Croke Park, Lynch was the main string-puller, nailing the last-minute point that ensured victory.

“The draw is what it is now,” said Lynch, who received the Vodafone Hurling all-star award for May yesterday after his titanic performance against Tipperary.

“We are just going to have to accept it. It is going to be hard with only a week to prepare to face a team like Galway.

“The fond memories of last year’s game won’t count for anything next weekend. The team is just going to have sit down together, I suppose, and have a look at where things went wrong against Cork, look to see what we can rectify and take it from there.”

Although Cork gave their most complete display in the championship for a long time, Clare still looked a shadow of the side that overwhelmed Tipp.

Lynch said sustaining the intensity from the first game was always going to be difficult.

“We were a lot more off the pace that we were against Tipp,” he said.

“You get so up for the first game especially when your first game is against one of the top teams in the country.

"We really felt we had to put a massive effort in to beat Tipp and that is what we got on the day. But, to go down from that and try to go back up again was a difficult thing to do in a short space of time.

“Cork were sitting back, probably in the same frame of mind as we were going into the Tipp game.

"We were on a high after Tipp, because we had shown we could put the disappointment of last year’s All-Ireland behind us.

"We knew we could perform a lot better than we did in the final last year but it was hard to repeat that type of performance in such a short time.”

Lynch wouldn’t be drawn on his red card, saying he would prefer not to comment.

He couldn’t confirm whether Clare were going to appeal the decision, but his dismissal had little bearing on the outcome of the game.

By that stage, Clare were a spent force, desperately searching for the kind of inspiration Seanie McMahon would have provided.

“What can you say about losing Seanie. And Davey [Hoey] as well. Two players off any regular half-back line is a massive loss, but Seanie being Seanie, he is an inspirational presence on the field for us and we did miss him against Cork.

"I think that showed. We missed a couple of long-range frees early on, and such is Seanie’s experience that you would have expected him to knock those over.

“We had never needed anyone to take frees for us through the years apart from Seanie.

"Conor Plunkett and Diarmuid [McMahon] were tried with frees against Cork, but they are still only young and maybe didn’t have the experience you needed for the atmosphere in Thurles.

"Next weekend will be yet another chastening experience for one of the Bannermen’s most inspirational performers. Another vital championship clash on the sidelines.

“I had to watch three All-Ireland semi-finals from the sideline. It doesn’t make it any easier, but I am used to it,”

Lynch said before re-iterating that how Clare respond in the next few days will determine the shape of their summer.

“It is up to everyone to knuckle down and face the facts that if we don’t beat Galway this weekend we are out of the championship.

"It is up to each and every player to concentrate on the game that’s coming and what it means to Clare. It is up to the team to stand up and be counted.