'A definite step-up in attitude': Brian Lohan happy with Clare performance against Limerick

Defeats to Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford in the opening rounds of the league had put Clare in serious relegation trouble.

Clare manager Brian Lohan felt his side "hadn't really done ourselves justice" in their opening three games of the Allianz Hurling League. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Brian Lohan credited his Clare team for upping their performance levels from their three previous outings to claim their first Division 1A win.

Defeats to Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford had put the reigning Division 1 and All-Ireland champions in a tight spot and Lohan admitted he felt his team hadn’t done themselves justice in those clashes in Ennis and Salthill.

But this was a welcome return to form against rivals they have been duelling with the past three seasons.

 “The couple of matches that we've played, didn't get anything from it,” opened Lohan. “So, you know, happy to come in here and get to win. A hard place to come and obviously to get the two points.

“That was a definite step-up in performance, a definite step-up in attitude, definite step up in commitment from all of the players as well. And then we had a number of guys last week getting back on the field for the first time in a competitive game, recovering from broken bones and bad injuries and, you know, it takes a while to get a bit of confidence.” 

Lohan conceded relegation had been on the minds of the group coming into the game. 

“Look, it does. But I think we hadn't really done ourselves justice in the last couple of games and losing two home games as well was certainly on fellas' minds as well. And just needed to win, needed for a bit of confidence and needed it for the group.” 

Clare could have put more space between themselves and Limerick in the closing stages but Lohan had few complaints about the performance or, perhaps more importantly the result. 

“We had chances to finish off better than we did, but we didn't. But overall I think happy enough with the performance and created, worked really hard and created a good few scoring chances. Yeah, that's brilliant.”