*Jamie Malone is tackled by James McCarthy. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
THEY MATCHED DUBLIN for all of Saturday’s National Football League tie and led by six points with fifteen minutes remaining but Colm Collins and the Clare footballers were gutted to leave Croke Park with no points to show for their efforts.
Having been so close to recording the football shock of the year, the underwhelming conclusion saw Clare’s chances of downing the Dubs vanish.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Collins admitted it was “a tough one” to take. “I thought we played a lot of good football, we led for most of the game, we should have got something out of the game but again for the second week in a row we’re going away with nothing. On the positive side I think we’re playing some really good football, some of the scores we got were top class, defensively we’re solid and not conceding goals, it will eventually come right but it is just disappointing”.
Although it was the second game in a row where they let a six point lead slip, Colm felt some of the visible errors on show in their one point loss to Kildare did not reappear in their clash with Dublin. “Against Kildare we retreated into our shell and it was a mistake, I think we didn’t do that today, when we attacked we turned over the ball too easily, we had a lot of easy turnovers which were the cause of a lot of our troubles. We weren’t taking the attack to execution where we would put the ball wide or shot a point”.
Though disappointed to have come up short, he was immensely proud of the display of the Clare panel. “I still think there’s plenty good stuff going on and the lads should be very proud of their efforts. The Dubs in Croke Park are a formidable foe and I think they put it up to them for all of the game, the Dubs only went ahead in injury time and they needed to use their big guns from the bench to get over the line, all in all I think the lads have a lot of good things to look forward to and if they keep this up and tidy up on a couple of mistakes they will have a great year”.
Their inability to interrupt Dublin’s wave of 0-07 in a row proved costly, the Cratloe clubman said. “There in the second half when the fat was in the fire we needed to get up and get a score but it just didn’t happen. We turned over some silly ball in that period and it cost us. Dublin are a good side, they’ve good defenders, a good defensive system and they force you into areas where you make mistakes and you’ve got to tidy up on that, there’s two points on offer next Sunday and we’ll go after those”.
Morale victories have never been targeted by Collins since he became Clare manager in 2014. That they managed to match one of the top teams in the country represents a clear sign of the strides made to develop football in the Banner County. “I’ve always said this is an amazing group of players, they’re as good as anything in the country, there’s just a few little things to tidy up to get the wins on board and hopefully we will get them”.
Some of the less-established players like Dermot Coughlan, Ronan Lanigan, Alan Sweeney and Manus Doherty were among those to really step up for Clare in the big lights of Croke Park. “There is great credit due to the young fellas, I thought Dermot was immense tonight, he had a fine game and so was Ronan, there’s plenty there and plenty fellas to come in”.
Podge Collins’ last involvement in the contest was to kick the final score of the first half, giving Clare a three point advantage at the interval. Management made the decision to withdraw the Cratloe man at this juncture. “Coming into the game his hamstring was at him so we took him off as a precaution at half-time, there was no point in pushing the issue, he just didn’t feel right”.
