Limerick hurlers refocus for Galway test after Allianz League defeat to Clare

LIMERICK senior hurlers must now switch their focus to Saturday night's home clash with Galway following yesterday's narrow Allianz League defeat to Clare at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

John Kiely's Limerick side suffered a 1-21 to 0-21 reverse at the hands of ‘the Banner’ in their Division 1A clash.

“I think we just need to be a bit better. We just weren’t good enough today. There was patches where we looked sharp. After half time we took a bit of control of the game at that stage. Generally if you look across the 73 or 74 minutes, I think Clare probably had more control of the game for longer periods than we had,” Limerick manager Kiely said after the game.

The Limerick boss is hoping the games against Galway, Kilkenny and Wexford over the next three weekends will stand to his side.

“We'll be hoping over the coming weeks that the games we have ahead of us that we'll benefit from those games as well,” he said.

Although Limerick created six goal chances and failed to take any of them, Kiely believes his side can take positives from creating those scoring opportunities.

“We left a bit behind us, we had 20 shots in the first half for example and we had only nine points, that's a lot of lost opportunities. It's great to see those openings coming inside the ‘D’.”

The threat of relegation spurred Clare in this encounter as the All-Ireland champions defeated their neighbours by three points.

“There's no doubt about that and when you've lost three in a row, there's a lot of soul searching goes on in dressing rooms when that happens, so obviously we hadn't been through that process,” Kiely said.

Peter Casey and Declan Hannon were not included in Limerick's match day squad yesterday. Both players were named on the squad for the scheduled clash against Kilkenny the previous weekend which was postponed.

“The group overall is pretty healthy. All the injuries that we have at the moment are all small. We're not going to play anybody unless they're 100%.”

Diarmaid Byrnes was sent off on 64 minutes of yesterday's clash with Clare. John Kiely said: “Diarmaid led with the leg to get in over the ball. Every player that goes into a ruck tries to get their leg in across the ball to get over the ball. That's what they're coached to do.

“He got it completely wrong in his timing and made contact with one of the opposition players. He's never been sent off before in his career, benefit of the doubt on this one. It was what it was.”

Limerick are fifth in Division 1A, but have a game in hand on the sides above them in the table.