Kerry captain Paudie Clifford says wasted goal chances is ‘something we have to work on’

In the same way, while the defending Munster champions ultimately retained their provincial title with a degree of comfort in the seven-point margin of victory, they could never pull away from their determined opponents either. It was that sort of afternoon at Cusack Park.

“Any time we have ever played Clare in Ennis it’s been a massive battle and they really responded well in the second half. We’ve things to work on, but happy to win and be number one seeds going into the group,” said Clifford, adding that last week’s All-Ireland Group Phase draw wasn’t a distraction for the players.

“We started the game fairly well, got into a nice lead, but let it slip a bit. We have to just go back and look at what happened and why we dropped off a bit, but we’re just happy to get through it.”

The Fossa playmaker said that he definitely saw improvements in the Kingdom display from what had been served up against Cork two weeks previously, but he accepted that his side need to get a little bit more ruthless, especially in creating, and finishing, goal chances.

“There was some good forward play in the first half. In the second half, we did create the chances but missed a lot. On another day, they’ll go over, and in the net. I suppose when you’re seven or eight points up, that’s the best time to be missing those chances,” he added.

“We were obviously disappointed with how we started against Cork, we responded well. Today we started well but let it slip a bit. We knew Clare would come back and, in fairness, they came back very well.

“They are a good team. I think they got a few very nice points that we couldn’t do much about, so yeah we’d be happy that we’re progressing all the time.

“We were probably one pass off with a goal chance or two. It’s something we have to work on. They kept it tight, they closed up the middle and didn’t allow us many goal chances.”

On the plus side, the four players parachuted into the Kingdom line-up for the game – Shane Murphy, Jason Foley, Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Tony Brosnan – all did very well on the day, and Clifford is pleased that the panel appears to be getting stronger at the right time of the season.

“Tony has been going very well, so great to see him taking his chance and playing well. Shane Murphy is a superb goalie, so we knew with him coming in we weren’t going to be weakened by any means. Yeah, it’s great for the two lads.

“We probably targeted this group stage to have everyone back and playing well, so we’ll take it game by game. We’ll aim for Monaghan and see what we have to do there, and see where we go. We can use this week to get a bit of work done and then get ourselves ready for the game in the second week, so it’s perfect.”

Sunday was also an emotional occasion for Paudie, David and the entire Clifford family, coming a year after the passing of their mother Ellen. “It’s obviously always in the back of my mind, and David’s, but it’s just nice to get the win.”