Halfway through the All-Ireland semi-final and everything looked rosy for Kilkenny.
They had dominated the opening period and were five points up on Clare, 1-10 and 0-08, but the margin could have been twice that.
There might only been four wides but Banner keeper Eibhear Quilligan had pulled off saves to deny Cian Kenny, Adrian Mullen and Mikey Carey goals.
The Cats were then left to rue their uncustomary lack of killer instinct as Clare came roaring back in the second half to win 0-24 to 2-16 and deny Kilkenny a third consecutive final appearance and second under Derek Lyng.
The wait for an All-Ireland title will now stretch to at least 10 years, their longest drought since 1947-57.
"When you're on top, you have to be scoring, you have to take your chances," the manager told RTÉ Sport.
"We had our spell when we were dominant. The last day [in the Leinster final against Dublin] we were very efficient, whereas today we probably weren't as efficient.
"I thought we were well on top in the first half. We looked very strong. In the second half, you know Clare are going to come at you. They come at you and they obviously got more points on the board today. Another couple of points obviously would have been a big help going in [at half-time] and at the end as well."
'In fairness to Clare, they won most of the battles and when you do that you deserve to come out winners'
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 6, 2024
Derek Lyng had no complaints after Clare's win over his Kilkenny side.
REPORT: https://t.co/JQ6ettpEq8 pic.twitter.com/QT8z6oFwmc
Kilkenny seemed to have caught Clare's kitchen sink and carried on, briefly pushing their lead back to six after raising a second green flag, from Billy Ryan, in the 47th minute.
But they only managed four more points after that, and failed to score in the final 15 minutes as their wides and under-hit shots stacked up while Clare's forwards repeatedly found space and won possession.
"We were in a strong position when we got the second goal," said Lyng. "We didn't kick on when we should have.
"I'm just disappointed overall. We didn't play well enough. Even though we were six points ahead, I thought there were aspects of our play that were still a little bit off.
"We tried making a few changes to get a spark back into us but the momentum was with Clare.
"The reality of it is that they won all the battles. They were attacking it better, in front of the man, and when they were winning all the battles around the pitch, we struggled on the back of that.
"They have excellent forwards and as the game wore on I thought we lost a bit of our shape. It was disappointing because we worked a lot on that, on the shape. But they moved the ball around very well."
Lyng praised his players efforts but had no complaints with the result.
"We tried to wrestle it back. In fairness to the players, they never stopped trying. As always, their effort was outstanding. But it's a tough one because I felt we were in a really strong position and we didn't see it out.
"You have to credit Clare as well. They forced their way into the game. From their point of view, they had a difficult start and we were on top. But as the game wore on, they probably got the better of us.
"I thought it was all over the pitch, in lots of places. It wasn't just their forwards. We found it hard to stop that momentum. They're a top-class team. From our own point of view, we're just disappointed because I felt we didn't show our best form today.
"We probably had a couple of chances that we didn't take. But that's also down to the pressure that Clare were putting on us. They deserved it in the second half."
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-final between Limerick and Cork at 4pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
