Joint manager of the Clare senior hurlers, Gerry O’Connor was most pleased with his side’s battling qualities in their three point win over Waterford in the Munster Senior Hurling League clash on Sunday.
Killanena native O’Connor was impressed with the resilience of the Clare players. “The reflection is that we got over the line, it was a very strong performance, we were forced to battle on several occasions, we went five or six points down halfway through the first half we battled back, we went down a man when Bugs got the second yellow and we battled back again. The most pleasing aspect for us was that we fought really hard when we had to”.
Speaking on Clare FM, Gerry highlighted how well he felt the Banner County moved on and off the ball. “We were moving very well at times when we went down to fourteen men we really worked the ball very well through the line, Pa Kelly in goals was finding David Reidy regularly and he was in our half-forward line, we responded very well to whatever situation we found in front of ourselves which was very positive from our aspect”.
In the space of two games, they have now conceded five goals. O’Connor feels more work is needed to limit the “defensive errors” causing the goals but points to other areas being focused on in training that paid off against Waterford.
“Donal Óg, Liam Cronin and Kieran Corcoran have been working really hard on our puckout strategy and our ball winning in the half-forward line in training, a lot of the stuff that they’ve been working on came off today, some of it didn’t and primarily the response from the players was excellent and we’re really thrilled with the performance”.
He also spoke of his desire to see their game Cork pushed back to Friday as so many of their panel begin Fitzgibbon Cup action on Tuesday night. “We would hope it wouldn’t be Wednesday because we’ve got thirteen guys playing Fitzgibbon on Tuesday night and that’s going to pose a real challenge for us to put a team that would be in any way prepared on Wednesday night”.