Kiely and Limerick draw comfort from share of spoils with Clare

Dan Morrissey of Limerick catches the sliotar ahead of Clare's Patrick Crotty during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A match in Cusack Park 

Allianz HL Division 1 Group A

Clare 0-18 

Limerick 0-18 

In keeping with the majority of this competition, this game will be gladly and quickly forgotten.

Notwithstanding the disappointing fare, Clare won’t want to be reminded that they were unable to take the full complement of points in either of their home games. Similarly, Limerick’s failure to win a game at the fourth time of asking this spring is not the stuff of All-Ireland champions.

John Kiely won’t be dwelling on that too much. If there was a saving grace from this latest outing, it was that the workmanlike performance was rewarded with a result, which was sealed with substitute David Reidy’s additional time free.

“We're making a number of errors, dropped balls,” he said. “You can see that yourself. The ball that's going to hand isn't being retained. Simple things like the pick-ups, those basic things but, that will come with more training, more work 

"We'll keep working on that, that's manageable. Attitude isn't something you can put into a team and today was much better from my perspective so I'm happy with that.” 

Clare mightn’t have been able to kick Limerick when they were down but they will be encouraged by a second-half display where they showed more impetus. Even if they didn’t take them, they produced the game’s three goal opportunities and while the dependency on Tony Kelly shows no signs of abating, they would have just about deserved a win.

“We had a couple of wides there at the end that normally would put over, but it was difficult enough conditions and for the 76 minutes it would have been hard to get the energy to get up the field and get that last score,” said Brian Lohan.

“It is what it is. We have a good enough spirit in the group, the lads worked hard against a really difficult opponent and I’d be happy enough with the spirit that was there.” 

While there were some tense exchanges and some players will wake up this morning feeling every bit of it, the quality was lacking. A total of 27 wides, Clare with 15, were registered. Kelly contributed seven of them, Diarmaid Byrnes hitting five, all of his misses coming in the second half.

Down 0-9 to 0-11 at half-time, Clare were level and ahead for the first time in the 50th minute, Kelly exploiting a Gearóid Hegarty mistake for the equaliser and David Fitzgerald then putting the home side ahead.

Fitzgerald excellently doubled his total and Clare’s advantage in the 57th minute and at that stage Kiely was worried. “"With 15 minutes to go, I would have taken the draw. The momentum seemed to have swung in Clare's favour and we were struggling. To be fair, we finished very strongly in the last quarter.” 

Indeed, Limerick hit back with scores from placed balls via Byrnes and Aaron Gillane although Nickie Quaid was called on to stop Ryan Taylor’s 64th minute shot. Limerick lost Gillane three minutes later when he lashed out at Conor Cleary as a Byrnes free went wide and picked up a second yellow card – the pair had received bookings in the 47th minute. Jack Browne joined him on the sideline for a double booking, his final yellow seemingly for dissent after a foul on Cathal O’Neill for Reidy’s free that ensured a share of the spoils.

Limerick had opened brightly, going three points up to no score up inside the five-minute mark, Tom Morrissey sending over their first from play with the last of those. Clare were up and running largely due to Kelly frees but Limerick were marginally better, Hegarty’s thundering shoulder on Kelly on his way to scoring his side’s fifth point was one of the highlights of the first half.

Clare had cut Limerick’s advantage to three points when in the 21st minute Fitzgerald pushed the ball to the back of Nickie Quaid’s net after Shane Meehan had done well to square the ball into his path. However, the umpire didn’t raise the flag to confirm the score and it was eventually ruled out for an infringement by Fitzgerald.

Limerick restored three-point leads on four occasions in the final 10 minutes of the half before Kelly fired over his fifth free just before the break. He would convert another three points on an otherwise iffy day for him in front of the posts.

Scorers for Clare: T. Kelly (0-11, 8 frees); D. Fitzgerald (0-2); C. Malone, S. Meehan, R. Taylor, R. Mounsey (sideline), J. McCarthy (0-1 each).

Scorers for Limerick: A. Gillane (0-7, 6 frees); D. Byrnes (0-5, 3 frees); T. Morrissey (0-2); G. Hegarty, C. O’Neill, A.

English, D. Reidy (free) (0-1 each).

CLARE: E. Quilligan; R. Hayes, C. Cleary, P. Flanagan; J. Browne, J. Conlon, D. McInerney; S. Golden, J. McCarthy; C. Malone, D. Fitzgerald, R. Taylor; S. Meehan, T. Kelly (c), R. Mounsey.

Subs for Clare: P. Crotty for R. Mounsey (52); P. Duggan for S. Golden (55); G. Cooney for S. Meehan (60); P. Donnellan for J. McCarthy (64).

Red card: J. Browne (70+2, second yellow).

LIMERICK: N. Quaid; R. English, D. Morrissey, B. Nash; D. Byrnes, D. Hannon (c), C. Coughlan; W. O’Donoghue, D. O’Donovan; G. Hegarty, C. Lynch, T. Morrissey; A. English, A. Gillane, C. O’Neill.

Subs for Limerick: R. Connolly for D. Hannon (inj 30); B. O’Grady for D. O’Donovan (53); G. Mulcahy for G. Hegarty (56); P. Ryan for A. English (61); D. Reidy for T. Morrissey (66).

Red card: A. Gillane (67, second yellow).

Referee: P. Murphy (Carlow).