Clare and Wexford determined to bounce back

THIS is not the best of weeks to be an intercounty hurler in Clare and Wexford.

On Sunday, both crashed to embarrassing defeats on the opening day of the league – the Banner boys pummelled by Limerick (2-9 to 0-6) while the Model County were thrashed up in Galway (1-24 to 0-6).

The past 48 hours have done little to ease the ire of fans – or the sense of disappointment amongst players. Yet both camps are convinced that one bad result doesn’t mean that the hurling obits should be dusted off by the media.

Wexford defender Keith Rossiter, who described their display as “disgraceful”, knows that things can only get better.

He said: “It was a very poor performance and there is a lot of doom and gloom around here at the moment, but I wouldn’t get too carried away. We were down Gizzie Lyng (Diarmuid, last year’s captain), Eoin Quigley, Willie Doran, Malachy Travers, Michael and Rory Jacob, David Redmond, and I only came on with 20 minutes to go. That’s a lot of players for Wexford to be missing. It was very tough for Colm (Bonner) and the management to have to try and put a team together to face Galway in Galway with so many experienced players out.

“We (Oulart-The-Ballagh) were beaten by O’Loughlin’s and we were down and out; the heads weren’t in the right place to go back to training. He got us going again, we’re all back in training, but he didn’t have a full hand to pick from for this game. I know Galway were short as well, but then you look at their team and they had John Lee at full-back, Tony Óg Regan at centre, Ger Mahon and Adrian Cullinane on the wings, big men who have all been around for a few years. They had huge experience throughout the field.”

It wasn’t as though Wexford caved in either, says Keith. “The lads never gave up – Wexford lads don’t, though we’re getting a lot of criticism about hanging the heads.

“But we never gave up – sure Jesus after about 20 minutes it was only five points to three, it was only in the ten minutes before half-time that they pulled away from us. There’s no excuse for it, I know that, we’ll have to go back and look at ourselves.”

Over in Clare, full-forward Diarmuid McMahon was also trying to deal with the reaction of his public.

“Not good, but that’s understandable enough,” he said of the feedback from fans. “It’s hard to know where it went wrong, and why. People are disappointed, but no-one is more disappointed than the players and management. It was out of the blue, a total systems failure. Limerick were good, but a lot of that was down to us too, we let them play.

“We know we can play an awful lot better than that – there’s no way we’re as bad as we looked yesterday, it’s just a question of bringing it out.”

However, with games on Sunday against Antrim (away) and Waterford (home), it’s not going to get any easier for either Clare or Wexford, respectively.

“No, it’s going to get tougher if anything,” said Rossiter. “It’s our own home pitch but sure the crowd mightn’t come out now either, and you wouldn’t blame them after the performance at the weekend. It was disgraceful, and I won’t defend anyone – you can’t.

“But it’s early in the year too, hurling is a different sport in the summer. The big fella will do better in the muck of spring, the fast little fella will be flying in the summer.

“I know we should have been better, and hopefully we’ll see a big improvement Sunday. It’s very early in the year to be writing a team off.”