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.''

Winning for Lyons was obviously an endorsement of his management approach, since he took over from Ger Loughnane after the 2000 championship defeat by Tipperary (when he was a selector and Louis Mulqueen the trainer).

Lyons said he delighted for everyone. "It might sound bland but it's a team effort. There are up to 40 of us involved. Everybody has worked really hard since November. We're thrilled to be in the final,'' he said.

"We took every game as it came and prepared really well for the next game knowing the implications that if you weren't right you were out. We were also conscious of last year, when we felt sorry for ourselves after being beaten by one point by Tipperary and seeing them go on to win the All-Ireland. We said that this year if we were in that situation, we would make the most of it.''

In the circumstances, their opening games in the qualifier competition against Dublin (which gave Lyons the first win of his managerial career) and Wexford were reasonably straight forward. The real benefit was that 'they helped generate a bit of momentum'.

"Lads found form in June and July that they hadn't found in May and by the time the Galway match came around, everyone was possibly in better shape than they were in May.''

Lyons admitted he had been 'anxious' at stages of the second half against Waterford. Initially, the concern was that they were putting away their chances, hitting five wides at one stage. "Towards the end, they were letting ball down a bit cheaply from their defence, which they hadn't been doing earlier on.

"When you leave a game hang like that there is always the possibility the opposition are going to score a goal and win. We never went more than four points up. For the possession we had we should have been seven or eight points clear. But we never did that and had good chances to do it.

"We got away with it on Sunday. On another day you could be severely punished for it."

On the credit side, Alan Markham showed a return to something like his best form, hitting the late first-half goal which had such a vital bearing on the outcome. Two weeks ago he had been taken off. "Alan has been working awful hard but getting no credit for that. Forwards only get credit for scores and on Sunday he got crucial scores in the first half when we badly needed them. Things might not have happened for him in the quarter-final, but he didn't hide either. His work-rate was always well up and that's probably one of the real strengths of his game. Even though he may be struggling to get scores, he has a huge work-rate and that's a huge bonus to the team."

Lyons feels the second semi-final is wide open. "Kilkenny have a tremendous defence and Tipperary forwards, if they get the opportunity, could put up a huge score. I think it's going to be an intriguing match.

"It's very hard to say who will win. Kilkenny won the Leinster final but they didn't play brilliantly. Tipperary were set up for the Munster final if you want to use the phrase, the way everyone said they were going to win it comfortably. They have good two games under their belt now and they are back on track again."