Daly happy as bite back in Bannermen
Paul Flynn had buried a penalty to bookend his goal from a 21-yard free in first half injury time, and Waterford were four points up.
However, Clare then took over, restricting Waterford to one more score while racking up 2-6 themselves. No wonder Clare boss Anthony Daly was happy afterwards: “It’s only the end of March, we’re not getting carried away, but that was a good win. No disrespect to the likes of Down but we can look forward to playing the likes of Cork, Tipp and Wexford now, probably. It’s good preparation for the championship, and there was a bit of a championship bite to this one.”
That there was. The sides swapped scores in a first half which was keenly contested on both sides of the white line: the respective managers, Daly and Justin McCarthy, swapped pleasantries at one point on the stand side of the ground and the match officials were forced to intervene. On the field itself, Niall Gilligan gave Clare a hint of daylight when he touched home a Seanie McMahon free in the 28th minute, only for Waterford to reel them in with Flynn’s first goal.
Much of Clare’s impetus came from a physically imposing half-forward line, and the signs were ominous for Waterford in the first half, with Nugent hitting the woodwork twice and Griffin winning a lot of Ball. Daly agreed that their contribution had been crucial.
“Tony (Griffin) and Diarmuid (McMahon) worked very hard, and Barry (Nugent) had his moments as well. I’m happy with the work rate, we battled hard. That’s the key for us, the resources we have coming through from minor and U-21 aren’t huge, so we have to make the most out of what we have. Lads like Brian O’Connell played U21 championship for his club yesterday and worked like a dog for us around the middle of the field, while Daithi O’Connell came on and got a goal.”
The half-forward line was crucial in Clare’s fight-back after Flynn’s second goal, with Griffin in particular rediscovering his touch as the game went on. He got the crucial goal in the 43rd minute, after a surge through the centre, to put Clare in front. With Seanie McMahon driving them on from centre-back they didn’t lack possession, and with ten minutes to go substitute Daithi O’Connell’s goal, Clare’s third, pulled the shutters down on Waterford.
Déise boss Justin McCarthy was open in his assessment of the game: “It was disappointing, but we’ll move on. There was a bit of bite to it, it was a good hard game for March, but at the end of the day it’s a league match, we’ll have three more games coming into the championship.
“Clare came into it strongly, the pitch is a bit tight and there wasn’t much open play, which probably suited them a little. We’re training hard and you can’t have every player on top of the ground every day.”
His Clare counterpart was equally frank in assessing his side’s season so far. “The Galway game was probably the springboard,” said Daly. “We were so bad in that it was probably a kick in the ass for us, which you probably need every now and again.”
Asked about his encounter with Justin McCarthy on the sideline, the Clare boss added to the rules debate: “Justin’s an old friend of Clare hurling, we wouldn’t be falling out over something like that. The UEFA technical area will probably be the next thing that’ll be introduced, that might be the best way out of it.”
Scorers for Clare: N Gilligan 1-4 (0-3f), T. Griffin 1-2, S McMahon 0-4 (2 65s, 1f), D. O’Connell 1-0, T Carmody 0-2, B Nugent, D McMahon 0-1 each.
Waterford: P Flynn 2-6 (1-4f and 1-0p), E Kelly 0-3 (1f), J Mullane 0-1.
WATERFORD: S. Brenner, T. Feeney, F. Hartley, D. Coffey, T. Browne, J. Murray, E. Murphy, E. Kelly (c), B. Phelan, S. Prendergast, M. Walsh, D. Shanahan, P. O’Brien, P. Flynn, J. Mullane.
Subs: E. McGrath for O’Brien (40); B. Wall for Phelan (YC, 43); J. Kennedy for Shanahan (58); L. Lawlor for McGrath (BS, 60).
CLARE: D. Fitzgerald, F. Lohan, B. Lohan, G. O’Grady, A. Markham, S. McMahon, G. Quinn, B. O’Connell, C. Lynch, T. Griffin, D. McMahon, B. Nugent, A. Quinn, N. Gilligan, T. Carmody.
Subs: D. O’Connell for A. Quinn (ht); C. Plunkett for G. Quinn (YC, 60); D. O’Rourke for Gilligan (YC, 65); D. Hoey for Griffin (68).
Referee:B. Gavin (Offaly).
