Waterford manager Benji Whelan believes that he has to ‘hold his hands up’ and take some of the blame for their defeat to Clare in the Munster SFC.

A big surprise was almost achieved by Waterford as they pushed a highly fancied Clare side all the way in Cusack Park, Ennis last Saturday night.

Speaking to the Waterford News & Star, Whelan stressed that they gave Clare too much respect and felt he was responsible for that.

“We gave Clare too much respect. I hold my hands up there and say that was partly my fault. It is a daunting prospect to come up and play a Division Two side away from home,” said Whelan.

“That factors into the equation as well. We were well within ourselves in the first half. We didn’t stride out and decide to play. In the second half, we went at it a lot better.

“We actually opened them up, created more space and that limited the turnovers. I thought we turned over the ball too easily in the first half. It was because we were very stagnant and trying to bring the ball into congested areas too frequently.

“Once we started to move a bit more and create pockets of space then we could play the ball into that space. We cut them open a number of times I felt and we were a little bit unlucky not to get a couple more scores.”

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