Limerick suffer heartbreak in Munster Ladies senior 'B' football championship

“MAYBE it was ring rust after a two-week break, but we just didn't take our chances. We should have had it wrapped up by half-time.”

With his side caught by a last gasp goal in a game in which they had dominated up to then, manager Seán Kiely was expressing his frustrations at Clarecastle's Clare Abbey centre as Limerick's ladies footballers fell to Clare on 1-4 to 0-6 scoreline in the opening round of the Munster Ladies senior 'B' football championship on Sunday.

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Faster, more organised and more aware on the break, Limerick led continuously from when they sent over the game's opening score after 10 minutes right up to four minutes into added time when a Banner breakaway flashed up the length of the field to end with a superbly taken goal from nowhere.

If Limerick had taken their chances, this outcome would have been well beyond the bounds of possibility, but it was in keeping with a display that, up until then, had always found a response when needed but then lost its impact whenever they extended their lead.

Even though Limerick showed confidence and hunger when turning over Clare movements, only to take too much out of hard-won possession once the visitors moved within sight of the posts.

Although the stiff breeze was blowing mostly across the field at the throw-in, Limerick dominated the early possession, they struggled to get the final pass in before Cathy Mee came up from deep to take the lay-off, burst past the challenges and shoot her side into the lead.

The Banner responded by pushing further up in midfield but, even though it led to them winning more possession in their opponents half, they struggled to get the delivery in behind Limerick's last line.

By the quarter mark, the wind was now diagonal and favouring the visitors, restoring their dominant share of possession and it looked as if they were finally finding some scoring momentum when Róisín Ambrose and Caoimhe McGrath extended their lead.

In fact, it could have been more had Karen O'Leary been off-target with a couple of scoring opportunities.

Those misses came back to haunt Limerick coming up to the break as Clare, shrugging off losing Emer Burke to a yellow card, got off the mark when Caoimhe Harvey got in behind the marker to score on the run and Megan Downes following up on the next attack to reduce Limerick's lead to 0-3 to 0-2.

The visitors held off early Banner attacks and, in their first movement out of their own half of the field, their lead stretched when McGrath popped up at the end of a sustained break to strike on the run.

However, when possession evened out, their focus faded within sight of the posts and the gap was back to a single point when a Clare wave from deep retained possession long enough for Harvey to find the target.

At that point, the subs started to troop on, adding to the energy of the Limerick line-up in particular but, despite seeing most of the play, they conceded the turnovers whenever they reached the score zone.

Going into the final quarter however, the waves of attacks from their half-back line finally bore fruit when Maedhbh Mcnamara and McGrath added to their lead. However, when a few follow-up efforts went wide, they started settling for possession in order to wind down the clock.

Clare found a reply in Harvey's free but then made no further headway as both defences reigned supreme over the closing minutes. Then, just as the result appeared there for Limerick's taking, an attack broke down within sight of the Banner goals.

The clearance directed a long delivery to Ellie Hanrahan who gained the maximum from the height advantage to pluck from the air and lay-off for Jessica Doohan, powering up in support, to force past two challenges and blast to the net just seconds before the long whistle sounded.

SCORERS: CLARE: Jessica Doohan 1-0, Caoimhe Harvey 0-3 (1 free), Megan Downes 0-1; LIMERICK: Caoimhe McGrath 0-3, Cathy Mee, Róisín Ambrose, Maedhbh MacNamara 0-1 each.

CLARE: Amy Lenihan; Lucy Power, Grainne Harvey, Rebecca Doohan; Caitríona Byrne, Jessica Doohan, Emer Burke; Caoimhe Harvey, Róisín Martin; Megan Downes, Éabha O'Malley, Lauren Conway; Edel McNamara, Ellie Hanrahan, Shauna Melican. SUBS: Áine Slattery for Éabha O'Malley (35 minutes), Lauren Flaherty for Lauren Conway (45 minutes), Johanna Fogarty for Edel McNamara (57 minutes).

LIMERICK: Chloe Collum; Ciara Hynes, Yvonne Lee, Joanne McGuire; Maedhbh McNamara, Cathy Mee, Grace Lee; Karen O'Leary, Orla Ryan; Róisín Ambrose, Deborah Murphy, Éadaoin Crowe; Ellie Woulfe, Lucy O'Brien, Caomhe McGrath. SUBS: Carol Bateman for Chloe Collum (41 minutes), Grace Mullane for Éadaoin Crowe (41 minutes), Caoimhe Macnamara for Lucy O'Brien (41 minutes), Georgia McGrath for Deborah Murphy (46 minutes), Aoife Morrissey for Caoimhe McGrath (47 minutes).

REFEREE: John Purcell (Kerry).