CLARE ON COURSE TO REMAIN IN TOP FLIGHT
McCarthy points way as Banner take down the Déise
NHL DIVISION 1 GROUP 1 WATERFORD 1-16 CLARE 0-20
IN THE match programme notes, one historical snippet jumped off the page. Not since 2006 had Clare won a National Hurling League game at Walsh Park. That same day Davy Fitzgerald started in goals with Brian Lohan in front of him at No 3.
Years after the double All-Ireland winning success of 1995 and 1997, two of the figureheads of that team were still inspiring those around them. Brothers in arms. Now? When the final whistle sounded at Walsh Park yesterday to signal Clare’s first League victory at the venue since that day, it was all too clear how they now inhabit separate worlds.
Fitzgerald held firm in front of the main stand, the Waterford manager happy to stand and sign autographs for some of the young fans that quickly entered the field and gathered around him.
Twenty-five yards down the sideline, his opposite number Lohan did his own thing, quickly enveloped by members of the Clare backroom team.
The traditional walk along the touchline to shake hands hasn’t happened between this pair for a while now — too much water under the bridge.
But both will take different things from an affair that carried enough bite and intensity to keep things interesting right up to the last ball as Waterford came in search of an equaliser.
When Shane Bennett stood over a close-range free deep into injury time, it looked for a second like he was going to try for a goal. Instead he fired it over the bar with referee Liam Gordon telling him there was time for at least one more play.
At this point, both teams and all those watching were fully invested as goalkeeper Éibhear Quilligan went long with the puck- out. Clare s ubstitute Gearóid Sheedy rose highest in front of the main stand to pluck the ball from the sky and seconds later, the whistle blew on a Clare win that puts them in a strong position to take one of the top three positions in Group A of Division 1 that will guarantee top-flight status in 2025 in a rejigged format.
Without key players such Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell and Mark Rodgers, Lohan will be happy that Clare found a spread of nine different scorers.
His side recovered from a poor first quarter in which a goal from Seán Walsh helped Waterford into a 1-4 to 0-3 lead against a strong breeze with the home side looking poised to kick on when level at 1-9 to 0-12 at half-time.
But Fitzgerald’s side struggled to make that wind work for them in the second half as Aidan McCarthy kept the scoreboard ticking over for Clare, particularly in the final quarter when the game came to the boil. Paddy Leavey was an influential figure for Waterford all the way through. The Ballygunner midfielder was named in the middle third but dropped from the start to sweep in a role that Tadhg de Búrca made his own. And Leavey impressed as he roamed free and acted as cover in front of his full-back line.
Clare played into Waterford’s hands by not pushing up or putting pressure on him, hitting a lot of long ball on the breeze into an outnumbered two-man inside l i ne of Aidan McCarthy plus David Reidy, with Ian Galvin rotating in occasionally.
Clare needed to either play around the spare man better or run the ball through the lines better.
A bright start from Waterford went a long way to keeping them well in it by half-time.
The goal exposed Clare failings in allowing Leavey way too much leeway.
He took a Shaun O’Brien puckout in acres of space and marched forward to play a ball into the corner where Walsh let it beat him and his marker.
The corner-forward then cut inside and while he looked to take a lot of steps while being tackled hard, he finished things off by flashing the ball to the net.
Against the breeze blowing down Walsh Park, it was the perfect start. Especially when three Stephen Bennett frees went to the opening point by Walsh to leave it 1-4 to 0-3.
Cian Galvin put in a serious shift for Clare, banging over two points on the breeze and getting i nvolved i n the thick of the action.
Seán Rynne was another to impress, full of running and with an eye for a score.
A bit of needle crept into things coming up to half- time, not helped when referee Liam Gordon reversed a Waterford free and then delayed in throwing in the ball in front of the main stand as a crowd of players squared up and went about getting their retaliation in first.
The second half equally carried a bit of bite with Clare mentor Ken Ralph issued a yellow card after protesting too loudly at a few calls that went against his side.
Waterford were going longer from their restarts and turning ball over far too easily, and Clare took control with four points in a row after the break via a couple of Aidan McCarthy frees and two quality scores from Rynne and Patrick Crotty.
Shane Bennett — back from his sojourn in Australia — came on for his brother Stephen who limped off with a worrying hamstring injury, not what he wanted in a week when he suggested it could be his last year in the intercounty game due to chronic hip problems.
John Conlon was effective in dropping deep to offer Clare defensive cover before he was s ubsti t ut e d whil e Leavey launched over an inspirational score from inside his own half to spark Waterford’s late rally.
Another big score from Darragh Lyons fed into that exciting climax but the clock just ran out on Waterford’s hopes of a second successive win.
WATERFORD: S O’Brien; I Kenny (D Lyons 58), P Leavey, M Fitzgerald; C Ryan, T Barron, M Power, PJ Fanning, N Montgomery; P Curran, J Prendergast, Pádraig Fitzgerald (K Mahony 41); M Kiely, Stephen Bennett (Shane Bennett 52), S Walsh (S Fitzgerald 58).
SCORERS: Stephen Bennett 0-6 (6fs), S Walsh 1-1, C Ryan, P Curran, Shane Bennett 0-2 (2fs) each, J Prendergast, D Lyons, P Leavey 0-1 each.
YELLOW CARDS: M Fitzgerald 14, J Prendergast 65, D Lyons 73. WIDES: 2 (4). CLARE: E Quilligan; C Leen, C Cleary (J Conneally h-t), R Hayes; J Conlon (S Morey 56), D McInerney, C Galvin; C Malone, S Rynne; D Fitzgerald (P Duggan 66), R Mounsey (G Sheedy 56), D Reidy; I Galvin (S Meehan 49), A McCarthy, P Crotty.
SCORERS: A McCarthy 0-8 (6fs), C Galvin 0-2, I Galvin 0-2, S Rynne 0-2, P Crotty 0-2 each, D Reidy, D Fitzgerald, C Malone, S Meehan 0-1 each.
YELLOW CARD: C Leen 32, P Crotty 68. WIDES: 5 (2). REFEREE: L Gordon.