Dan Shanahan admitted Diarmuid Kirwan’s decision not to award Jamie Barron a free in injury-time was “tough to take”, writes John Fogarty..

“When you lose, it’s very hard to take. That’s being honest. Did we deserve to lose? I don’t think so. Our lads gave it everything but Clare got the luck of the draw today.”

On the incident, he said: “I’d rather not comment on that. I’ll leave that up to yourselves. It is tough to take. Not only that but there are a lot of decisions that have to be questioned. I’m not giving out, Clare won the game, we meet again in four weeks.”

As regards the number of frees given against Waterford, Shanahan remarked: “What can I say? Off the record, I’d love to tell you what I think but I can’t. Clare seemed to get the frees easier than we did. Ye heard the reaction of the crowd coming off the field there (with Waterford fans booing Kirwan).

“That tells its own story. I shouldn’t have to answer that question. It tells its own story when you hear the crowd like that.”

Derek McGrath claimed Kirwan made a mistake in not penalising Dillon for a foul on Barron. “It’s a mistake, I suppose, but we make enough mistakes ourselves on the line.

“I don’t think anyone makes a deliberate mistake. That’s the way it goes in sport.

“I could give you all the clichés you want, but that’s the nature of it.”

Shanahan felt Waterford were the better team for the most part. “Definitely but you have to give Clare credit too. They’ll probably tell you they didn’t play well and they won the game.

“But our lads played exceptionally well. We always say if they give it 110% and are beaten by a better team, that’s fair enough.

“We were just beaten by a better team today, by a point.”

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.