Old heads turn up trumps as Clare strive for the goal touch

Back on July 25th Clare's hurlers stared into the abyss. When Ollie Fahy slipped in his and Galway's second goal, the Connacht champions led the All-Ireland quarter-final by nine points. The depth of the abyss was gauged not alone by the deficit, by far the largest Clare had conceded in their five seasons of being championship front-runners, but also their style as a team.

Overhauling a nine-point margin in the second half is going to require goals and for such a formidable side, Clare score remarkably few goals. On the morning of the match, the Sunday Tribune, with a fine sense of timing, ran a piece reflecting on this shortage of major scores.

Two strands of thought emerged: one that because the team's strength was scoring points out the field, they rarely worked the ball in close to goal and, two, that the poor goal-scoring record created double pressure on the team - both to score more points and ensure that goals weren't going in at their own end.

That very afternoon Clare somehow found the goals. They were assisted by Galway's misfortune in losing both full back Brian Feeney and his replacement Michael Healy, but it was only the second time that they had managed three goals in a major championship match.

In overwhelming Galway in the replay, Clare hit another three goals. Six in two matches: it was an unprecedented sequence of goal-scoring from Ger Loughnane's team. One of the features of his line-outs in the five years since taking over has been the inconsistency of the listed personnel.

Since the opening championship engagement of June 1995, Loughnane has only named an unchanged forward line on two occasions in 22 selections. This has been partially driven by the management's desire to field players who are in form and in the absence of six clearly first-choice attackers, the unit varies all the time.

Looking back at this season, Clare have already used 13 forwards in their five matches to date. More strikingly, a number of the players who had helped make the breakthrough in 1995 but had since been discarded or marginalised returned to first-team consideration.

Fergal Hegarty, Stephen McNamara and PJ O'Connell all started matches for the first time this year. The latter two scored goals in the quarter-final matches. It has to be pointed out that for the first time during their ascendancy, Clare have suffered from injuries to key players.

The return of Jamesie O'Connor, their most important forward, contributed to the strong performance against Galway in the replay but there was a general opinion that Clare's forward play had qualitatively improved.

Michael Bond, manager of outgoing All-Ireland champions Offaly, who defeated Clare last year, believes that Clare have improved.

His belief is partly based on the return to form of the DooraBarefield players - O'Connor, Ollie Baker and Sean McMahon - who helped their club win an All-Ireland last March and two of whom have been injured in the meantime.

"Yes I was impressed by their attack against Galway. Jamesie O'Connor, Conor Clancy, Niall Gilligan and Alan Markham demonstrated great workrate coming out beyond the middle and winning ball. They were working hard but there was also a pattern to it.

"I think they've improved because the key players are more rested now. Because of their injuries, Ollie Baker and Jamesie O'Connor have had the opportunity to rest for a while. Even Sean McMahon was very impressive against Galway in the replay. I think they're coming out of a trough."

Rory Kinsella, who stepped down as manager of the Wexford hurlers last June, sees the unsettled nature of Clare's attack as a deliberate policy. "They've done a good bit of surgery and I'd say they nearly use nine forwards in every game and the subs they bring on are always hungry for it."

The man who had the most devastating view of Clare's improvement in both the draw and the replay is Matt Murphy, the Galway manager. He noted an improvement in the deployment of the forwards but also believes that his own team's errors and difficulties had a sizeable bearing on the issue.

"The first day they didn't seem to have a focal point and we dominated centre-back. In the replay there was more balance to the attack. Clancy's contribution to that was fairly significant. For most teams to play to their full potential, they need a centre forward hustling and bustling and making the breaks.

"Our effort on the first day was badly disrupted by losing our two first-choice full backs. Even the second day, two of the goals we conceded would have raised question marks over the full-back line.

"The first goal was quite good. Clancy won the ball and laid it off for Gilligan, but there was an element of luck in the next two.

Vinnie Maher took a hefty knock and tried to clear the ball but Alan Markham got a hurley to it. It could have gone any place but it was deflected to PJ O'Connell who nearly lost it with his first touch.

"For the third, Niall Gilligan shot for a point and Brian Feeney got a block on it. If he hadn't there might have been a point or maybe not even that. Goals win matches and it doesn't matter whether they slip in or get kicked in. I don't know how they'd have got on without the defensive errors."

Tomorrow, Clare face their most significant test in two years. Last year, constant additional matches wore down the team and this season they have again been incapable of stringing two good performances back-to-back.

If they can't play to the sort of standard reached against Galway in the replay, it is likely Kilkenny will beat them. Should that happen, the rot will start in the forwards. Failure to create and take chances will create pressure further back the field.

If, however, they can sustain their best form again tomorrow, it will recreate the greatest momentum the current team have generated since last winning the All-Ireland.