‘Soft goals cost Clare’, Fitzgerald

SOFT goals cost Clare a place in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling quarter-finals. That’s the view of team boss Davy Fitzgerald who admitted to being “very disappointed” after Saturday’s loss to Limerick in the qualifier at Semple Stadium.

“We didn’t seem to get it going at all in the second half. We were in control in the first half and we should have gone in ahead but we lost our way and soft goals again cost us today. We can’t give them away and it’s something we have to look at. That was a killer today. When you get a sucker punch like that, it’s very hard to come back from it,” he said.
“We were well in control in the first half. The lads gave us everything. These lads are learning. There were a lot of young fellas out there today and they are still learning,” the team boss said.
Fitzgerald felt Clare were in control midway through the first half. “Aaron [Cunningham] went through and had a goal chance. It took a great save to deny him. We would have gone way ahead at that time. Small things change games. We gave away a silly free and they came down and got a goal. Those small things didn’t go our way today.”
Stressing his pride in the players, the manager said, “Lads played well in patches but you got to play well for 70 minutes. We were trying to get out of 1B this year and learn as much as we could. To beat Limerick four times in the one year is a tough thing to do.”
In the manager’s view, Clare were playing catch-up for much of the second half but they let that happen. “The goal was the killer and it is something that shouldn’t have happened. It was our mistake and we shouldn’t have let it happen but maybe in other years, the boys would have thrown in the towel but they didn’t throw in the towel today. We kept fighting to the very end. We got it back to a puck of a ball. Fair play to Limerick, they got it and they deserved it. We won’t be complaining about anything.”
“We know we lost our way a bit and we have to learn from that. This isn’t going to happen overnight. There are two or three years in this building process. I am happy with the lads. I am gutted today for them because to see them inside in the dressing room, it’s tough. We have worked very hard. It’s a long road and we might get knocked back again next year but we will keep trying and keep going at it,” the Sixmilebridge man continued.
“An extra week makes an awful difference and it did today,” Fitzgerald said. “You spend weeks when you do nothing and then you come out and you play one week after another. If they could space it out that every team got two weeks, I think it can be accommodated.”
However, he was at pains not to offer this as an excuse. “Let’s not make excuses about that today. They beat us and we were playing catch-up in the second half.
“There were a lot of young guys out there today who didn’t shy away from it and we are delighted with them. They will be back. Without a shadow of a doubt, they aren’t going anywhere. We are hurt. It’s a hard thing to be asked to beat Limerick four times in the one year in competitive action and we weren’t a hundred miles away from it either,” he concluded.