Lohan’s dismissal ‘major turning point’, says Daly

ANTHONY DALY was trying hard to be positive.

He stressed how the League campaign had been good for Clare. He said that they had been serious about winning it.

But, in the aftermath of his team's 14 points defeat in Semple Stadium yesterday he was also realistic in accepting how it happened.

Explaining it, though, was another matter.

"I'm not going to make excuses, Kilkenny upped it a gear and we didn't live with it," he commented.

"Maybe we're not good enough, maybe we got tired, you can use whatever excuses you want.

"I felt we looked a bit dead on our legs.

"But the schedule was the same for everyone the same for Kilkenny as ourselves."

Predictably, Daly expressed his disappointment at the way the second half had worked out for his team believing that the final score did not reflect the way they had performed in the first period.

What made it all the harder to accept was that he had warned his players at half-time about the urgency of not relaxing their efforts.

"The first ten minutes we knew was going to be crucial.

"We said that at half time," he elaborated. "But, we made a few basic mistakes, mistakes that the likes of Kilkenny and Cork will always punish you for.

"We didn't live with them for that vital ten minutes. We let the gap open and once the goal came to put five or six in it was always going to be very difficult for us."

Daly described the dismissal of Frank Lohan as 'a major turning point' added to the fact that they didn't make headway in the half-forward line. "It told. Peter Barry did an awful lot of hurling and JJ Delaney too. It's hard to hold the Kilkenny forwards when they get a good supply of ball. They did get that supply and they did the damage."

"You could not compare it to the devastation of losing to Waterford last year. This is still only the League, albeit the League final. We've got to pick it up for the championship. The 5th of June has been our target all year. We're going to face a savage battle against the winners of Limerick and Tipp."

Co-selector Fr. Harry Bohan, manager of their winning teams of 1977 and 1978 agreed that Kilkenny's defensive strength had been the decisive feature.

"Their backs destroyed us in the second half that was the problem. Apart from that, we could have got more scores in the first half. We lost a goal the time Tony Carmody came in, but you can't take it from Kilkenny.

"I don't think it will knock us back. Tony Griffin is only after coming back, he should make a big difference when he is right. I don't think that was our true form.

"We wanted to win this but we came up against a strong Kilkenny team."