This article is from page 69 of the 2011-01-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
IT’S rare for a defeated manager to hold a smile at the final whistle; rarer still when taking into consideration the natural competitiveness of said manager Davy Fitzgerald who in his playing career was nominated for nine All-Stars, winning three of those in 1995, 2002 and 2005 as well as two All-Irelands and three Munster titles.
That ferocious will to win hasn’t waned since entering the managerial route in 2008 but with LIT missing several key players and having bigger fish to fry in the Fitzgibbon Cup next week, Fitzgerald was more than happy with his side’s attitude and application on Saturday, despite the defeat.
“I think everyone enjoyed today’s game because it was competitive. We wanted to win, they wanted to win and that’s what you have to have.
“The score wasn’t a true reflection of the game because I was delighted with the performance. I knew that missing the three or four lads we are missing today, it would be very hard for us. Like Clare, if you are on a county panel, you have to be good enough to be on it but on a college team, you might have a good 15 or 16 that are very, very strong but not as strong afterwards.
“When we were missing Seamus Callanan, Seanie Collins, James McInerney and Joe Canning today, you are missing out on four very good lads. I felt that we probably had three or four good goal opportunities that we didn’t finish whereas I felt Clare took the two or three chances that they got. But in fairness to them, I was looking at Clare both last week and this week and there was a massive improvement in their commitment.
“We are delighted with the game because you want to play in competitive games like that. I was delighted to see Clare fighting as hard as that and Clare need those games. You need a bit of fire and I think you’ll see there was a good bit of fire out there today but definitely Clare came on a lot in a week but I expected that anyway.”
Delving deeper into the difference between chance taking, the former Clare goalkeeper offered his opinion on why his side were continually frustrated by current number one Philip Brennan.
“He saved them a couple of times but there is no excuse for him saving them because we should have finished them. You can’t hit the ball hip high at any goalkeeper. Any goalkeeper worth his salt will stop the ball hip high. We have to be hitting the balls down low where it counts but we didn’t do that today but fair play to Clare, they kept the ball out at the back and they took their chances.
“From a Clare point of view looking at it, you’d have to say they worked a lot harder there today and that was a big thing. Fellas got games that hadn’t got games before but as I say we are just delighted we got that game. I didn’t care about winning it because Wednesday week is when we want to win. It was just vital for us to get that game.”
With one half of a potential dream semi-final line-up shattered, at least Fitzgerald has a second bite of the cherry when he brings his Waterford side to O’Garney Park on Sunday. However, with over 20 squad players unavailable for last Sunday’s 1-12 to 0-11 victory over Cork IT, Fitzgerald doesn’t hold out much hope for a repeat of last year’s victory at the same stage.
“If you have to come back here, you have to come back but all I want to do at the moment is get as many games as I possibly can into it. That would be a good game again and if we meet Clare, I don’t think we’ll match them with the squad we probably have at the moment but it will be good for us to give lads a chance because these are the games to try out players.”