Clare need big improvement, admits Lyons

CLARE still need a big improvement to win the Guinness All-Ireland hurling championship in a month’s time.

Manager Cyril Lyons admitted this yesterday on his return from Dublin following Sunday's win over Waterford. "We had a number of problems in our last two matches in that we got off to such awful starts,'' he said. "If it was bad against Galway it was awful against Waterford. They were seven points up after 11 minutes and they didn't have to work for those scores. We got away with it the last two days.''

Wing-back Gerry Quinn had an operation on his hand on Sunday night after being injured in an alleged off-the-ball incident at the end of Sunday's game which infuriated Clare Secretary Pat Fitzgerald and several of the players. Lyons himself said he hadn't seen the incident. With Quinn's hand in plaster, Lyons said it wasn't 'looking good' for the player. "It spoiled everybody's celebrations,'' he added, "because Gerry has been brilliant in this championship for us.''