Clare captain Pat Vaughan has stressed the need for his side to be playing in Division 1 of the NHL in 2012.

The Banner County have languished in Division 2 for the past two seasons, but a win over neighbours Limerick in this evening's league decider would see them rejoin the top flight next year.

Vaughan believes the gulf in class between the top and bottom teams in Division 2 has done nothing for the development of the Clare team which is backboned by members of the county's 2009 All-Ireland U21 winning side.

"It's a massive match for both teams, but for Clare especially. Being in Division 2 last year and this year, it was hard to improve your hurling," he said.

"You're playing some teams that you're beating by over 20 points and there's nothing for us to learn from that.

"The majority of this team was on the U21 side two years ago which won the All-Ireland. And it does nothing for their confidence to be playing that standard of hurling. It would be a huge plus to win and get up to Division 1."

He continued: "At the start of the year Limerick and ourselves were favourites to get to the final, and that's how it turned out.

"We started badly and were well beaten by Limerick in our first game. It is hard to put a finger on why we were so poor. The weather was bad but that didn't affect Limerick, they played well, blew us off the field.

"We were very inconsistent throughout the league, losing to Laois and only barely got past Antrim in Antrim. Limerick have been very consistent. They won all their games, and they'll be hoping to make it one more win now." Tweet

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