LIMERICK hurlers suffered a rare championship loss to neighbours Clare, falling just short (1-24 to 2-20) after a pulsating championship clash at the Gaelic Grounds over the May Bank Holiday Weekend.
It was a below par performance from the home side, for whom goalkeeper Nickie Quaid prevented the issue from being decided earlier with some stupendous saves.
Limerick had led 1-10 to 0-12 at the interval, but in the run-in were denied by a couple of late winning points from substitute Aaron Shanagher.
Séamus Flanagan, who was making his 60th appearance with the side, grabbed both Limerick goals.
A week earlier, the All-Ireland and Munster kingpins scraped over the line against Waterford, but in front of over 30,000 supporters were pipped by the Banner.
“I wouldn’t cry over it. It’s not the end of the world,” lamented Limerick manager John Kiely after the game.
“We have only two points from four. I suppose if you said to me a month ago, ‘Would you take two points from four?’ Maybe I would have.
“Our accuracy saved us last week (versus Waterford), our accuracy left us down this week. To be fair, both oppositions brought two excellent performances and it shouldn’t be necessarily about our performance as the performance of the opposition that we have to take on. I think Clare brought a really excellent performance and it was always going to take an incredible performance to beat them on the night and we just fell narrowly short.”
With the next outing not until May 21 (versus Tipperary in Thurles), Limerick have taken a short break ahead of a resumption of training at the weekend.
Tipp had a bye in round two and this will be the Premier county’s first outing since their high-scoring win over Clare at Cusack Park, Ennis, a fortnight ago.
“We have three weeks now to get our ducks in a row,” Kiely commented.
“We have to take this week possibly to refresh and get a bit of a break from it. Freshen up, come back and prepare for the Tipp game. That’s going to be a huge fixture now.”
