Clare are ready for a tough encounter, insists Keane

MUNSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL REPLAY:

Neither were achieved, laments selector Ger Keane.

Clare twice put themselves in a position to strike for home, twice did they fumble. A five-point advantage was coughed up midway through the second-half, while the home side allowed Waterford raise three white flags on the hop to cancel out David Turbridy’s 65th minute goal.

It was a throwback to the lethargic, error-ridden Clare performances of recent years, much less the consistent, composed displays churned out this spring. The Banner’s league campaign had pointed to an encouraging summer, instead manager Colm Collins was left to pore over this Cusack Park “horror show”.

“The first objective was to get a result and then you were hoping they would put in a big performance. That we didn’t do either was very disappointing,” said Keane.

“You have to give full credit to Waterford. They had a good game-plan and they made life very difficult for us. We went 1-7 to 1-2 ahead and if there was a disappointing aspect to the game it was that we put ourselves in a good position on a number of occasions and we didn’t kick on from there. We were improving all throughout the year and it wasn’t reflected last weekend so we would be hoping on Saturday evening that we would see an improvement from the drawn game.

“When you do go three points up with only a couple of minutes to go, as we did when David Tubridy goaled, you would be confident enough. I knew Waterford would respond though. They would always feel they have a chance against Clare. In the four times we met over the last ten years it has been two wins apiece. There is never much between the teams. It will be the same again on Saturday.”

Their recent meetings, as Keane alluded to, have been evenly matched; Waterford did edge their last championship collision in 2010, Dungarvan the venue. Important to note the Déise have not secured a provincial victory since.

“We were favourites last weekend, but after the way the drawn fixture finished you’d have to say momentum is with Waterford. You can see it is going to be a very tight affair and if we came out one-point winners on Saturday night we’d be happy enough. A result is all we want now.”

He added: “The quick turnaround allowed us to work on very few of the problems that were evident last week. We had a recovery session on Sunday and we did a good session on Wednesday. The main thing was to keep the freshness in the panel and be ready for a tough encounter today.”

WATERFORD: S Enright; D Crowley, T O’Gorman, M O’Gorman; C Phelan, S Briggs, O Keevers; S Ahern, T Prendergast; M O’Gorman, L O’ Lonáin, T Ó hUallacháin; B Wall, P Whyte, J J Hutchinson.

CLARE: J Hayes; D Ryan, K Harnett, M McMahon; S Hickey, G Kelly, C Russell; G Brennan, S McGrath; S Collins, E Coughlan, B Hartnett; M O’Leary, S Brennan, D Tubridy.