Collins: Failure to keep the ball so costly

Lack of ball retention was cited by Colm Collins as the chief reason for his team’s second-half downfall yesterday.

Clare mustered just four points from play after the break, at the same time registering six wides.

Asked the main reason for the defeat, he said: “Ah blast it, giving the ball away.

“You’ve got to keep the ball, there’s no excuse for it and this is something we have to work on.

“You can’t give it away cheap or you can’t drop it short, you’ve got to bring it up and kill it, hopefully score it.

“It’s probably being nit-picky about it, you have to praise them for a great shift.”

Collins said his players had never doubted their ability to pull off a shock against their illustrious neighbours from across the Shannon.

“Fierce disappointing, we were fully convinced we could win this game.

” We came here to win it and it doesn’t matter whether you’re beaten by one or 20 points.

“We felt we had a team to do it and we were in the right place, we had only one injury really so we were as strong as we could be.

“All year long, with the exception for periods of the drawn game against Waterford, this crowd have performed every day they have gone out.

“If you have any experience of being in charge of teams, that’s all you can ask from players, you can’t dictate a result.

“Something out of your control can happen and a goal can go in and you can be beaten, but these fellas have performed all year long and I’m extremely proud again.”

The disparity in classbetween Division 1 and 4 was belied by the strength of the Clare performance for the majority of the game and they were good value for their half-time lead.

Aside from coughing up possession cheaply, Collins felt Kerry had the edge in their ability to take their scoring chances.

“I thought we finished stronger actually, coming towards the end we were pushing for a goal so I thought we matched them all through.”

He added: “They were probably more efficient scoring than we were, they went up and got some marvellous scores and fair play to them, they have marvellous forwards.

“We didn’t have that at the other side, I don’t know if the breeze was a factor or not.

“We’re very much looking forward to playing the qualifiers and having a battle.”