HOSTING WATERFORD this evening will be a ‘huge experience’ for Clare’s minor hurlers.
Ex Clare captain, Brian O’Connell is in his first year in charge of the county minor hurlers. This evening’s clash with Waterford is their second championship encounter but first home tie, the winner of the clash secures a home quarter-final.
On the test that awaits this evening, BOC outlined, “If you win that, you finish second in the group which would make a big difference who you face in the quarter-finals so obviously we want to win and hopefully we will”.
He was disappointed with aspects of their first round loss to Tipperary where six points was the final margin between the sides. “It’s disappointing, I thought we were the better team in the first half to be honest and could have added on a few more points to settle the nerves a little bit more. But we found it half to recover from those those killer blows in quick succession at the start of the second half. Those goals really knocked the wind out of the lads and by the time they realised that they were still in the game, Tipp got very defensive knowing that we needed a goal.
“It’s always fine margins in games like this that decide contests and that’s the way you want it as the bottom line is to be competitive against every opponent you face. We probably tried to force a goal too but it’s a learning curve for these lads and we can take a lot of positives from the match as we showed a lot of character. We can’t afford to lick our wounds either as we have a game again next Tuesday night that we need to get ready for again so hosting Waterford in the Park should be a good experience for us,” the Shannon man stated.
