Architects of Our Own Demise

A blustery morning in K Leisure saw the Naas lads get off to a bright start despite the challenging conditions.

Naas were on the front foot from the opening whistle and created four good opportunities to open the scoring before finally getting the breakthrough.

Tadhg O’Sullivan created a great opportunity and Luke Brynard was on hand to follow up and give Naas a deserved 1–0 lead.

The lads continued to create chances and had multiple opportunities to extend the lead. A penalty presented the perfect chance to make it 2–0, while the Clane keeper also produced a great save to keep his side in the game.

Unfortunately, shortly after the missed penalty, a rare error in the Naas box allowed Clane to equalise. Despite Naas having enjoyed the better of the first half and creating more than enough chances to be ahead, the teams went in level at 1–1.

The second half was a very different story.

Clane were ruthlessly efficient when their opportunities came, while Naas simply weren’t ruthless enough.

Clane took control of the game, took their chances and ran out deserved 4–1 winners.

Plenty to learn from. We were excellent for large periods of the first half, but football is about both halves.

We didn’t take our chances when we were on top and, in the second half, we simply weren’t at the level we needed to be. Clane were more clinical and consistent and deserved the win.

But there are plenty more games and plenty more opportunities to get it right. This is an excellent group with some excellent footballers, and we’ve already shown the quality of football we can play.

The next step is learning to be more ruthless when we’re on top and maintaining that level for the full game.

Full-time: Naas 1–4 Clane