Clare pay for fall off in form

FOR the second successive match in their Church and General League campaign. Clare found themselves involved in a game of two halves. Unlike against Galway a fortnight ago, they started early in Nowlan Park yesterday and took up the running in the first half, but a sterling comeback by Kilkenny meant that the match concluded in similarly unproductive fashion for Clare.

The fine second half performance by Kilkenny was underwritten by two familiar faces, D J Carey, whose switch to fall forward helped mobilise a hitherto unimpressive attack, and John Power, whose contribution on the 40 picked up considerably in the second half.

Newcomer Andy Comerford was also a dynamic presence at midfield and gilded his overall display with a couple of second half scores, including a well struck sideline ball.

Clare's half time changes had the curious effect of dismantling what had been a sound enough attacking unit. Their second defeat has under mined what had been a good start to the season and edges them from quarter final contention into the middle of the relegation war zone.

Two changes were made to the listed line ups before the throw in. Eddie O'Connor, captain of Kilkenny's last All Ireland winning side in 1993, came in at full back for Padraic Farrell and ended up marking Ger Sparrow O Loughlin, who was a late call up by Clare to the edge of the square for Conor Clancy.

The team were level at 0-3 each after an opening 15 minutes which entertained the crowd of about 10,000 and the match also featured some exciting goalmouth disturbances with Niall Moloney's shot scrambled away by the Clare defence. Barry Murphy and to a lesser extent, O'Loughlin failed to exploit chances created by Frank Lohan's perceptive long range clearances which split the Kilkenny defence.

Clare went on the offensive for the remainder of the half. Their chief weapon was the bravura display of Jamesie O'Connor at midfield. Sniping around the general area, be cleaned up a lot of ball and moved it smartly.

In the 21st minute, he was involved in the sequence that led to Clare's goal. He set up Niall Gilligan, whose run on goal was summarily terminated for a penalty. Sean McMahon hit the bar, but the ensuing play the same principals conjured up the score. O'Connor's sideline cut broke for Gilligan in the square and he took his goal.

P J O'Connell gave further evidence that his form is on the mend. Cilligan posed a constant threat and Murphy tormented David Beirne although his distribution caught the eve more than his marksmanship as he hit three wides. Clare introduced Eamonn Taaffe at full forward, dropped Murphy back to the wing and withdrew David Forde.

Wind advantage and a much improved performance were at the heart of Kilkenny's revival, but the reshaped Clare attack failed to fire at all, managing only one point throughout the second half. Murphy had nothing like the same impact on the half forward line and Taaffe was well restrained by a revived full back line. In fairness to Clare's forwards, they had a fraction of the supply that first had flowed their way in the half.

Comerford's efforts, with good support from Philip Larkin in the middle, were instrumental in turning the match around but it was Carey who took the vital score. Kilkenny had cut the margin to two points, 0-7 to 1-6, when Power was allowed far too much time and space to pick out his captain who drove the ball to the net and Kilkenny hit the front.

The hurling was impressive up front and, at the back, Kilkenny were taking a firmer grip with Pat O'Neill overcoming a cumbersome first half performance to assert himself at the heart of the defence. His flankers, Liam Keoghan and John Costelloe, were also sound, albeit that their input hadn't been subject to the same fluctuation.

Aside from the mechanics of individual performance, Kilkenny showed, great spirit not alone in recovering from their first half adversity but having established a three point lead with a towering point from away out the field by Comerford, they had to withstand Clare's own revival which trimmed the margin to 1-8 to 1-9 with little over a minute remaining.

Firstly, Carey clipped over a free and then in the 61st minute substitute Michael Phelan, who had come on at fell forward, ran onto a long, penetrating, ball from Larkin, rounded Brian Lohan and kicked to the net.