We’ll improve, says O’Connor, as Kerry labour past Clare

Kerry 1-17 - Clare 2-08: IT was easily told this Kerry team hadn’t played together since January 8.

On that occasion, Jack O’Connor’s charges scored a 14-point win over a Tipperary team that had contested an All-Ireland semi-final the August previous. The decent block of training they’d achieved during the Christmas break was all too evident in their comprehensive dismissal of the Premier footballers, but their preparation for last night’s Munster U21 opener was anything but smooth and with a quarter of an hour remaining, Clare found themselves just two in arrears and very much in contention.

The home outfit weren’t motoring well and their defence wobbled each time Clare ran at them from halfway. With Sean O’Shea (free) and sub Killian Spillane having moved the Kingdom 1-10 to 1-6 clear nine minutes into the second-half, the game was thrown back into the melting pot following a second Clare goal.