Brennan reflects on ‘sickening’ defeat

CLARE midfielder Gary Brennan couldn’t deny or hide his disappointment on Monday. Clare had travelled to Aughrim knowing they had to deliver a sustained gun-to-tape display if they were to win promotion to Division 3 for the 2013 season. For 20 second-half minutes, Clare did play superbly but that innings wasn’t matched for most of the first half, when they kicked five balls into the grasp of the Wicklow goalkeeper.
Until he was forced off, having been downed with his first experience of a hamstring pull, Brennan had been playing the best football of his year at midfield. His loss, 21 minutes from time, was huge.
“It’s sickening because it undoes all the good work that we had done up to this point in terms of results. Six wins and we still don’t get promoted but we had six wins two years ago as well and it wasn’t enough to get us promoted either,” Brennan reflected.
“Really, if you want to get out of Division 4, you have to get to that 13-point mark. Twelve just isn’t enough. We’re learning that the cruel way, although Wicklow had only six wins as well but on the basis that they beat us, they’re going up. We had our chances in the first half and probably didn’t capitalise on our dominance. I think that’s maybe where it went wrong for us,” the Clondegad midfielder suggested.
“I was guilty myself with the first ball, which dropped into the goalie’s hands and ended up in the net at the far end of the field. Maybe not so much our shooting but our shot selection wasn’t what it should have been. I don’t think we had the same composure in front of goal that we had in other games,” was his take on some of Clare’s point-scoring efforts in the opening half.
Before he pulled the hamstring, Brennan was downed on the far side of the field. Play continued before he got to his feet, after some treatment from Clare physio Seán O’Meara.
“I passed off the ball and I fell to the ground as I hand-passed it. I felt a definite foot on my back. Who am I to say whether it was deliberate or not but I was quite annoyed that the linesman was very close to it and didn’t see it. It didn’t cost us the game but it’s not the type of thing you like to have happen on the field. I’ve a very clear mark on my back after it,” Brennan revealed.
Having seemingly shaken off that knock, Brennan was soon seen walking disconsolately to the sideline, visibly limping and clutching his hamstring.
“It’s strange because I’ve never done it before. I was going up the field with the ball, had a score on my mind and all of a sudden my game is over. I found it hard to watch it, you just feel like it’s gone out of your control. Any influence you could have on it is gone. It’s very frustrating after training all winter,” he said.
Outstanding until his enforced departure, Brennan’s absence resulted in Wicklow midfielder James Stafford storming into the game in the closing minutes.
“I wouldn’t have been overly happy with my form up to Sunday but I suppose I picked it up a bit. Stafford isn’t a bad player. He was bound to catch a couple at some stage,” the St Flannan’s school teacher commented.
While Clare gave it everything possible, they are back where they started – playing Division 4 football next season.
“It leaves a very hollow feeling. It would have been great to be playing Division 3 football. Since I came on the panel, I’ve been playing Division 4, bar the first year when it was regrouped. It’s something we’ve been looking to do for quite a few years but Wicklow have been in that position. It took them a long time to get there too,” Brennan noted.
He is adamant Clare will pick up the fragments and focus on trying to reach a Munster final this summer.
“You can sit around and feel sorry for yourself about it or you can look at June 10 and say we’ve a Munster semi-final. We’re playing the winners of Waterford and Limerick.
“There’s an opportunity to make a Munster final so you just have to pick yourself up and go for the next goal and worry about Division 4 next year. We’ve got to go out and represent Clare to the best of our ability. We’ve got to work hard over the few weeks to make sure we do that,” he maintained.
On a closing note, Brennan feels Clare have had a decent league campaign, despite the disappointment of losing in Aughrim.
“Two years ago, when we got hammered by Waterford (in the league), there was a sense that we weren’t ready for promotion whereas this year, in every game, we have been competitive.
“I think you’ll find that Wicklow and Fermanagh will have good years after this so we should take heart from that too, although moral victories are no good to us now. We’ve had enough of them but we’ve got to take heart from the performance,” Brennan concluded.