McDermott vents frustration at referee Mangan

THE handpass rule may not have dominated the headlines in the Fraher Field yesterday but refereeing decisions still dominated post-match discussion.

Kerry whistler Aidan Mangan’s interpretation of the advantage rule in the second half was a source of huge annoyance to Clare boss Micheal McDermott.

“I’ve no problem with the handpass or new rules like that, but I have to say the referee made some very bad calls on us today.

“When a guy is fouled, and there’s no advantage accrued from it, you should get your free. That happened six or seven times in the second half. We were called for over-carrying too and that came from being fouled, and they had to try and break away from the foul.

“There’s no advantage in that.”

McDermott admitted that his team contributed to their own downfall by coughing up too many scoring opportunities.

“We weren’t ruthless enough today. It comes down to that in championship football and it was something we talked to the players about.

“We got chances to win the game and we didn’t take them. They fought hard, they showed all thecharacteristics we wanted in a team.

“But the ruthlessness was missing today. When you look back at the wides we kicked, and the wrong options we took. That decided the outcome.”

It was not as carefree an afternoon as the league meeting six weekspreviously but for Waterford manager John Owens the most crucial aspect was that the result was the sameyesterday.

Waterford laboured for long stages of this game against a Clare side that was considerably improved from their previous league meeting, and Owens admitted it was vastly different performance from his charges.

“It certainly was a different performance. There was nocomparison between that performance and our one against Limerick in the league either. But it doesn’t matter now. We’d have taken a half-point win there today.

“There was pressure on us coming here and, to be honest, we were installed as favourites. That wasn’t a tag we wanted but we got it.

“We expected a tough game. Clare came down here and played very well in the first half. But once we got a wee bit of dominance there before half-time, it brought us closer to parity and we were happy enough at the break. We had a bit of a wind coming out and the main thing was to hit long balls into Gary. One of them he caught it brilliantly and banged it. It was just great to see it hitting the back of the net.”

For Waterford the focus now switches to a date with Limerick in two weeks where they will seek to exact revenge for their recent league final reversal. The prize on offer for them is huge, a first Munster final place in 50 years.

“We’ve got two weeks of pure work ahead of us now for Limerick. It’s going to be a powerful day down here in two weeks’ time. Hopefully we’ll have as much support as possible because that’s helping all the time. We’re looking to the possibility of getting to a Munster final and we’re going to give it our very best shot to nail that down.”

Clare boss McDermott now attempts to pick his charges up and get them set for the All-Ireland qualifier route.

“I said to the lads in the dressing room, for too many years, when Clare went out of the Munster championship, they sort of threw in the towel, and gave a half-hearted attempt at the qualifiers. I asked for honesty from the players there tonight, to give it a go for six weeks, and see where the journey takes them.”