*Martin Donnelly congratulates Colm Collins at the final whistle. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
COLM COLLINS has described Clare’s win over Cork in the Munster SFC as “massive” and the biggest of his tenure as county senior football boss.
Under pressure heading into Sunday’s tie knowing a defeat would see Clare end up in the Tailteann Cup and out of the race for the Sam Maguire, a win was simply essential in Cusack Park.
Securing the 0-14 0-13 win sees the Kilmihil native kick off his tenth championship campaign as senior boss in a memorable fashion. “This was backs to the wall stuff, to be fair, it was one game that losing was not an option. I’m delighted for them that they delivered”. He said the win was “definitely the biggest” of his term as manager. “We haven’t done really well in the Munster championship, I mean players want to play in the All-Ireland. This is moving them a step closer to that, it’s massive”.
He added, “When it went so close at the end you were looking over your shoulder, it’s great to come out the right side of a result like that for a change, we drove on and we got the last score but on a general side for getting a result you would have to be proud to be associated with that bunch of lads, fantastic effort across the pitch, they gave every last drop they had and it would be an awful travesty if they didn’t come out with a result”.
Thirteen wides over the course of the game will stand out as a concern when Clare reflect on their overall showing. “We had a lot of wides and for once our freetaking was off a little, we missed some scoreable frees, lads that are usually so reliable but the most important thing is we got the result, we’ve an opportunity now in a Munster semi-final, if we win it we’re back into the Sam Maguire, that is the important thing”.
Although Clare were relegated from Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League, games against Derry and Cork aside, they produced performances but failed to get the results. That they delivered a strong display and had to result to boot was a big lift as the Cratloe clubman reflected in Cusack Park. “As a team they were very deflated over some of the losses, after playing some really good football in those games we let teams beat us, it sounds queer to say you let Dublin beat you but that was it, we were in a winning position and we didn’t drive on, today thankfully they righted that and I’m delighted for them, they are a fantastic group of players”.
Collins told The Clare Echo what their messages at half-time to the players focused on, given that five of the six points conceded in the opening half were from placed balls. “Fergal (Kelly) referees the game in a certain way, I thought it took us a long time to adjust to the way he was refereeing the game, they had got most of their scores from frees. The other thing we were concerned about was we were taking shots that weren’t really on, we needed to be more patient and thirdly we weren’t breaking quickly enough when we turned over the ball, I think we rectified nearly all of that. The shooting, still there was times when we could have taken another bass, we will hopefully rectify that”.
With the winning score fisted over by Cillian Rouine and created by a brilliant Ciaran Russell, Collins could only praise the defensive duo. “We worked it all the way down. Cillian has had a tough year through injury, he has come back really mad for road, I’m delighted for him, he has incredible pace and he can get up the field and in behind the defence, he took the right option. Ciaran is a special type of guy, he is the type of fella if you are in a real battle, he is the man you want with you, he proved it today”.
Stephen Ryan stepping up to stop a certain Rory Maguire score from distance was also notedn by Colm, “That’s the importance of having a goalkeeper like Stephen, he will get the odd one of those that could be a point with another goalkeeper, thankfully he had a fine game again”.
