Newly confident Clare won’t underestimate Leitrim

Big enough to expect a win, small enough to fear a defeat — that’s the position Clare are in travelling to Carrick-on-Shannon this evening. After three consecutive years in Division 2, and coming off a not-so demoralising defeat to Kerry, Colm Collins’ team should travel north with optimism, but then there are grounds to be wary.

“We’ve never been able to take anything for granted, because we weren’t that good,” says former goalkeeper Joe Hayes. “Even though the lads are muscling away up in Division 2, they’re a fairly level-headed bunch of lads, that will treat this game the exact same way they treated Kerry three weeks ago.