EMBATTLED CLARE BOSS Davy Fitzgerald is confident that his Banner County stars can defy the “doomers and gloomers.”
Clare slumped to a third successive Allianz Hurling League Division 1A defeat on Sunday – and are now staring a relegation playoff squarely in the face.
Clare have two games left to save their skins or they’re facing the prospect a second one-off shootout in three seasons to preserve their top-flight status.
But Clare did, of course, defeat Cork in 2013 before going on to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup later in the year.
Fitzgerald watched Clare lose by five points against Tipperary at Cusack Park on Sunday.
But he accentuated the positives from the home side’s display in front of over 7000 spectators.
Fitzgerald said: “A lot more fight there today. I’m a lot happier.
“We have the doomers and gloomers around (but) if we keep playing with that kind of passion and spirit, we’ll win more games.”
And while Fitzgerald, a fiercely competitive character, is concerned by his team’s current losing streak, he insisted that the summer is what really matters.
But the worry for Clare is that they haven’t won a game in League or championship since defeating Laois in the 2014 League quarter-final.
Fitzgerald added: “Listen, they’re big games but in the context of Mayo and June, how big will they be?
“If we lose to Limerick and Tipp in Munster, they’re big games. I’d be worried then if we were getting well beaten.
“We’re disappointed, we tried everything to win the game. I felt we weren’t 100 miles away today.”
And Fitzgerald hailed a vocal Clare support for their backing.
“The crowd were pretty good – they tried to get behind us. We were half-expecting they might get on our backs but hats off to them.
“They know we’re trying and trying very hard. I said to the lads inside (in the dressing room), you’ll always have the fellas that will be giving out and knocking you but we’re a very united squad as everyone will see.
“We’re very together and we’ll keep going. We won’t be 100 miles away from anything.”
Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.