Davy: We were complacent

Davy Fitzgerald kept his charges in their dressing room for the best part of an hour after what could be a crucial home defeat.

Afterwards, the Clare manager, who had watched the game from the stand gantry as selector Louis Mulqueen patrolled the line, suggested his players had bought into their own hype.

“I think we believed the bullshit that was written in the last week that paid awful disrespect to Waterford, which I thought was very unfair considering how many Munster championship winners they had in their team.

“I think our fellas maybe got a bit complacent coming into today. We had enough of chances, we didn’t win it. Well done to Waterford.”

Fitzgerald was careful not to criticise referee John Sexton but hinted the Cork official could have blown the final whistle prior to Brendan Bugler’s 73rd minute foul on Shane O’Sullivan after two minutes of additional time were signalled.

“It was a free, it was a score. 100% so it was — the dead right thing to do so no complaints about that. I wish he had blown up about five seconds earlier!

“I’m not going to say anything about the referee — I thought he did a fairly good job. I thought he was very honest, very fair.”

Fitzgerald questioned his team’s ruthlessness. “We gave them seven points of mistakes. We weren’t as aggressive as we should have been but it’s important to point out Waterford were good and aggressive, good on the ball and had some great scores.”