Brian Lohan rues 'gut-wrenching' loss as John Kiely sees positives in Limerick's late show against Clare

Clare manager Brian Lohan was left to rue his side's late defensive collapse as he counted the cost of a 'gut-wrenching' defeat to neighbours Limerick in Ennis.

Nine points ahead with less than 20 minutes to play, the Banner conceded three goals as the All-Ireland champions survived an off-colour first half to get their drive for five off to the perfect start.

Lohan was disappointed with how his side defended as they were outscored 3-06 to 0-03 in the last quarter.

"It's gut-wrenching really," he said.

"Games are over 70-75 minutes, 80 minutes, and you have to perform for all of that time. We lost our concentration, we lost our shape and we lost the game.

"Some really poor goals, really poor defensive pieces of work. Very disappointing from our perspective," he told RTÉ's Saturday Sport. "Really disappointed with that last 10-15 minutes that we played."

Clare must pick themselves up for a trip to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh next week to face Cork, who also suffered an opening weekend reverse at the hands of Waterford.

Lohan was not looking for any sympathy regarding the quick turnaround

"It's the same for all teams, whether you win or lose, it's four games, quick turnaround, just have to see if we can deal with it."

Winning Limerick manager John Kiely was happy with how his team responded to a wasteful opening period and was thankful that Clare did not put them away during a low key start to the second half.

"There was so much in that 80 minutes. First half we were giving away too many frees. We didn't capitalise on our possession and the chances we had. In the first half we had 18 chances to their 16 and yet we went in 4-5 points down. That was disappointing.

"We weren't in flow really," said Kiely.

Limerick 3-15
Clare 1-18

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