Davy urges Banner to stop the ‘stupid stuff’

WEXFORD manager Davy Fitzgerald believes that his native county Clare can challenge Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final – once they play to their strengths.

‘The sooner the public in Clare let that team play the way they should be playing, they have a chance of doing something,’ he said.

‘If they stay doing that stupid stuff of hitting the ball long all the time, they won’t win anything. They need to work the ball the way they were working it today. That is what works for that team. Myself and the lads, we wish Clare the best of luck. It is crucial let that team play.’

However, Fitzgerald also believed that his side could have won but for some sloppy secondhalf wides.

‘If we managed to score them two or three points when we got back into it,’ he said, ‘trust me, I don’t think we would have been beaten. We weren’t the better team. The better team should have been up a bit more.’

For his part, Clare joint-manager Gerry O’Connor was proud of his team had pulled away from Wexford again.

‘I didn’t feel like that on the sideline!’ he said. ‘It looked as if we were well on top in the first half and we spoke all week about finishing strongly at the end of the first half. We were able to keep that six-or seven-point cushion for a long time.

“Then the goal came and the momentum shifted quickly and they got on top and there was three or four points in it for a long time.

‘It was in the last ten minutes again that our boys really stood up, we had some massive performances all over the field in that last stage,’ O’Connor concluded.