Storming second half sees Clare clear

A storming start to the second half during which they scored 1-3 in three minutes, steered Clare to a merited win over Westmeath in round three of the hurling league (Division 2) at Cusack Park in Mullingar on Sunday.

A tally of 1-27 shared by nine players is sure to please the winners but there will be concern that they conceded 2-17 even if the home side’s second goal came in the fifth minute of injury time with the scorer Derek McNicholas clearly in the small square when he directed the ball past Donal Tuohy.
In a tighter contest there would certainly have been protests from Clare at the fact that the game was in the fifth minute of added time when Antrim referee Garrett Duffy blew the final whistle. Two minutes of additional time had been signalled by the fourth official.
The game was nine minutes old before Clare had their opening score, a point from a 110m free by midfielder Nicky O’Connell. At the time the home side led by two points, having scored in the fourth and sixth minutes.
O’Connell’s score sparked off a good spell for the visitors which saw them score seven unanswered points to lead 0-7 to 0-2 at the end of the opening quarter.
On a couple of occasions during Sunday’s game, Clare built up a good lead and then appeared to ease up. Leading 0-8 to 0-3 after 20 minutes, they conceded the next four scores which allowed Westmeath to rally to within a point and this was the margin at the interval when the score was 0-10 to 0-9.
Clearly there was some concern in the Clare camp and this was made known to the players at half-time. They responded impressively when scoring 1-3 in the first three minutes of the second half and these scores put them on the road to victory.
Clare made a number of changes to their line-up for the second half. Caimin Morey and Patrick O’Connor were called into the attack. Morey went to full-forward in place of Cathal McInerney, while O’Connor came into the game at wing-forward and in the resultant reshuffle, Pat Donnellan was the one to lose out.
James McInerney went from midfield to wing-back with John Conlon moving to midfield leaving Fergal Lynch to lead the attack.
Colin Ryan pointed after just 20 seconds and then Darach Honan broke through for Clare’s goal. Points followed from Patrick O’Connor and Fergal Lynch and suddenly Clare were seven points clear.
A Brendan Murtagh goal from a 25m free and a point from the same player kept Westmeath hopes of a shock alive but Clare hit back with some good points and by the end of the third quarter the winners were 1-19 to 1-11 in front.
Four unanswered Westmeath points kept the pressure on the visitors and left just four between the teams with 10 minutes to play. Between this and the end of normal time Clare outscored the home side 0-6 to 0-2 to leave the score at 1-25 to 1-17 going into injury time.
Two additional minutes were signalled and in this time Clare had points from Fergal Lynch and Darach Honan to stretch their advantage to 10 points.
The referee allowed play to continue and in the fourth minute of additional time Donal Tuohy produced a superb stop from close range. Less than a minute later he could do nothing to prevent Derek McNicholas’ flick from close range from entering the net.
While Clare will be pleased with the result, there is still much room for improvement. Too many scores are being conceded, while improvement is required with regard to winning possession from their puck-outs and, particularly, in the area of winning breaking ball in the half-back, midfield and half-forward areas.
John Conlon worked hard throughout as did his clubmate Domhnaill O’Donovan and Cian Dillon, while Colin Ryan and Darach Honan picked off some impressive scores.

Clare: Donal Tuohy; Pat Vaughan (captain), Conor Cooney, Domhnaill O’Donovan; Brendan Buglar, Cian Dillon, Pat Donnellan; Nicky O’Connell, James McInerney; Jonathon Clancy, John Conlon, Fergal Lynch; Darach Honan, Cathal McInerney, Colin Ryan.
Subs: Caimin Morey for McInerney (half-time) Patrick O’Connor for Donnellan (half time) and Sean Collins for O’Connell (63 minutes).
Scorers: Colin Ryan (0-9, 4f); Darach Honan (1-4); Nicky O’Connell (0-3, 2f); John Conlon (0-3); Jonathon Clancy, Fergal Lynch and Caimin Morey (0-2 each) Cathal McInerney and Patrick O’Connor (0-1 each).
Frees for: 12; wides: 13
Bookings: Pat Donnellan (13 minutes); John Conlon (41 minutes); Jonathon Clancy (74 minutes).
Westmeath: Pat Burke; Ronan Whelan, Paul Greville, Eoin Price; Philip Gilsenan, Andrew Mitchell, John Shaw; Joe Clarke, Niall Flanagan; Derek McNicholas, Brendan Murtagh, Christopher Flanagan; Ciarán Curley, Brian Smyth, Dan Carthy.
Subs: Alan Devine for Carthy (48 minutes) and Alan McGrath for Curley (58 minutes).
Scorers: Derek McNicholas (1-5, 0-1 line ball); Brendan Murtagh (1-4, 1-3f); Brian Smyth (0-2); Eoin Price, Andrew Mitchell (’65), John Shaw, Christopher Flanagan, Ciaran Curley and Alan Devine (0-1 each).
Frees for: 12; wides: 10; 65s: 1
Bookings: Ciaran Curley (13 minutes); Joe Clarke (13 minutes) and Niall Flanagan (44 minutes).
Referee: Garrett Duffy, Antrim.

Sparrow concerned by team’s workrate
Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin was pleased with the tally his charges ran up on Sunday but he expressed concern about some aspects of the team’s play.
“We looked good at times. In the first 10 minutes of the second half we came out of the traps great and got some good scores. However, we are just making life a bit uncomfortable for ourselves by letting teams back into games. We drop our workrate and invite teams onto us. Most teams will capitalise on that. We have to learn,” the manager said.
That said, he went on to express his delight with the team’s tally of 1-27.
“There was a good improvement today. Conditions were good and going forward, the better the ground the better for us but conceding 2-17 is a concern for us and we must work on that.
“We are back on track and it’s in our own hands again,” he said. “We have to take each game in a league as a knock-out and we must win each of them. It’s in our own hands but we must work on what we are conceding or it will crucify us along the way.”
He welcomed the arrival of “the longer evenings as it is giving us an opportunity to get in some hurling. Last week we were in Limerick IT. That was a great help. It’s great to get the hurling in at this time of the year as it’s important to get sharpness.”
Asked if he felt under pressure heading to Mullingar for Sunday’s game he replied, “there is pressure because we lost our first game against Limerick badly. We have to try and get back to where we think we are but we also have to realise that it is going to take a bit of time. We are working hard at it but the likes of Westmeath and Antrim will make you work hard as they are doing a lot of work.”
Acknowledging that the starting full forward line on Sunday has accounted for 1-14 of his side’s tally, O’Loughlin pointed out,  “They are all young players and they will come to the fore over the next few years. We need to be scoring because it will take good tallies to win in the Munster championship. We have to continue to work at it,” he concluded.