Joe Hayes has one of the best vantage points when it comes to championship football, standing between the posts for the duration of the game, he gets to analyse events as they unfold while also being kept on his toes for the frequent attack from the opposition.
Clare’s first choice goalkeeper may be able to judge the game from a close distance but that doesn’t mean he is idle during games, far from it. The Lissycasey man had to deal with several dropping balls on Saturday while with sixty two minutes on the clock he got down low to deny Kyle Cawley a goal only for Pat Hughes to slot the rebound home for Sligo’s only goal of the game.
From where Hayes was standing he could only look on in admiration with the second half display of his teammates. “I was busy enough, I thought the lads were outstanding the second half, I thought they really stood up, Cathal kicked some great points from midfield, the backs were tight I know they got in for a goal but listen they’re a good team aswell, they’ve some very good forwards and we weren’t going to keep them all day either, we really knuckled down the second half, we were disappointed with the first half”.
Reaching the fourth round of the qualifiers isn’t new territory for the Banner, they were there in 2012 on the back of their Munster Final defeat to Cork and exited at this stage to Kerry. However Joe points out to The Clare Herald that this time Clare have won games to reach the last twelve. “It’s super, not too often we’ve been here, once before which was probably we came in the back door having lost the Munster Final, this time we’ve won games to get there”.
Belief comes hand in hand with winning games and the Toomevara based Garda says the momentum from their last two games will be crucial against Roscommon. He says people would highlight their schedule as a problem if they were to lose but admits their workload between games hasn’t been strenuous.
“Tis gas, two wins on the bounce you say momentum, if you lost today there would be a big thing about the six day turnaround, you’re not killed during the week when you’ve games every week so you’ve plenty of time to recover so I think it’s all about momentum now, we’re out next Saturday I can’t wait, really looking forward to it”.