*Cathal O’Connor’s absence in the middle of the field was telling in the dying moments. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
IN HIS FIRST column of 2023, Ger Keane analyses how Clare’s footballers let a six point lead slip against Kildare to fall to back to back defeats in the Allianz National Football League.
Rory Gallagher, the current Derry senior football manager was an interested spectator at Cusack Park in Ennis last Sunday to watch the Clare v Kildare National Football League match.
After their emphatic win against Meath the previous night, Gallagher described Round 3 of the league as being akin to ‘moving day’ in golf. In essence this means that after this round of games everyone has a clearer picture of where each county stands in the table and what teams are in the hunt for promotion and those who are looking over their shoulder at the bottom end of the table.
It now appears that pre-tournament favourites, Derry and Dublin, are the clear fore-runners for promotion from Division 2 with all the other teams jostling for mid-table position and doing their level best to stay out of the bottom two.
It was clear from the outset of this game that the clash between Clare and Kildare had an added significance as both teams take on Dublin and Derry respectively in their next round of matches. There was a good bit of bite and niggle in the early exchanges with both sides giving as good as they got knowing the importance of this game in the context of vital league points.
In the lead up to this game Clare had leaked five goals in their two previous games against Louth and Meath, while Kildare had been hit for three goals in their games against Dublin and Cork. Understandably both teams were a little cautious in the opening period as they probed and searched for weaknesses in each other’s defensive structures.
At half time Clare looked reasonably comfortable as they led by 0-11 0-07 ,albeit having played with the aid of a strong breeze. In that opening half Clare were dominating proceedings around the middle third with their full back line and half back raiding from deep and launching incisive and successful raids at the Kildare rearguard.
Eoin Cleary was prolific from frees along with classy scores coming from Podge Collins, Ronan Lanigan and Emmet McMahon. In fact, McMahon had another score wrongly disallowed for what the referee adjudged to be a double bounce which was subsequently proven to be an incorrect but costly call in the end. At this point, Clare were playing a nice brand of flowing football and were full value for their six point lead midway through the second half.
The two league points looked to be staying in the Banner county when Kildare had Ben McCormack sent off with 20 minutes to go. However, Kildare would ultimately do to Clare what Clare had done to Louth in the first round and turn around an unlikely comeback into a narrow victory. The Lilywhites’ cause was helped by a number of crucial turning points as the game dramatically thundered to life with fifteen minutes to go.
Firstly, Clare lost their evergreen midfield lynchpin, Cathal O’Connor to a hamstring injury at a time when they were cruising and dominating proceedings around the middle third. O Connor’s experience and ball winning ability were missed in the final quarter especially with Darren O’Neill unavailable for selection through injury.
Secondly, the introduction of both Daniel and Neil Flynn as substitutions proved to be a thorn in the Clare side as they pounced for six points between them in the second half with both scoring two points each from play. With the introduction of Daniel Flynn in particular Kildare were able to go more direct in their approach and grew in confidence as result of the former Australian Rules footballer’s presence.
Thirdly, Clare consciously or sub-consciously sat back on their laurels instead of attacking the lead and using their extra man to stretch the visitor’s defence. This along with Kildare’s tactic of employing a higher press saw the momentum of the game shift in Kildare’s favour and once control of the game changes it is very hard to get it back. The Clare management will not be happy be with a number of negative turnovers and poor decision making in the closing stages when the game was in the melting pot.
The game itself had plenty of drama with a number of bemusing refereeing decisions on both sides including black cards, a red card, a disallowed point, questionable frees and plenty of talking points in between.
Overall, Clare will be very disappointed and frustrated to come away with nothing from this tight and tense encounter, a game which they controlled for long periods. Clare will know and won’t need anyone to tell them that this was a match that they could and should have won and that it what will hurt them most this coming week.
There are a lot of excellent young players in this set up that are still learning their trade, be it in colleges or inter-county football. They will have learned some harsh lessons from this defeat but will not have much time to wallow in self-pity as Dublin are fast coming down the tracks next Saturday evening in a six day turnaround.
The Dubs despite their three wins still haven’t hit their normal high standards of previous years. Dessie Farrell and his management team appear to be trying a number of new players in the backline while also looking for a partner for Brian Fenton in midfield. Their resources and strength in depth are all too evident as they were able to bring on the multiple All-Ireland winning trio of Jack McCaffrey, Davy Byrne and James McCarthy as substitutions to see off the challenge of Cork last weekend.
The match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was played at a high intensity pace and will no doubt be of benefit to Dublin who will hope to time their run to perfection for a tilt at Leinster and All-Ireland glory. Their hard running lines and scoring threat up front with the likes of Dean Rock, Con O’Callaghan and Cormac Costelloe available will ensure that the Clare defenders are on their toes and focused on the task at hand as they had a 69% shooting efficiency from play and placed balls in their game against Cork.
For the loyal band of Clare supporters it is another trip up to the hallowed ground of Croke Park to take on the Dubs in their home patch for all intents and purposes. This group of Clare footballers will relish the opportunity to take on one of the top teams in the country and make amends for the manner of the defeat to Kildare. To stand a fighting chance, Clare will hope to have some of their injured players back in action and this will add strength to their substitutes bench who need to provide a better scoring return for Clare to prosper in this division.
Clare will also to be hoping to create and score more goals if they are to take a scalp of one of the ‘big guns’ in the coming weeks. One positive from the weekend was that Clare did not concede any goals and this will be important again on Saturday evening as goals give the Dublin players the fuel and energy to get to the next level.
Moving day or moving week may have come and gone but there is still an awful lot of football to be played in this division which will go right down to the wire in terms of points, head to heads and scoring difference so everything counts. This Clare team have shown enough so far this year to show that they will not shy away from any challenge put before them and they will fight tooth and nail for every point on offer.
