*Goalkeeper Stephen Ryan is dispossessed. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
“FOOTBALL SUICIDE” cost Clare from claiming a second win in this year’s Allianz National Football League, manager Colm Collins has lamented.
Clare were on course to maintain a one hundred percent home record in Division 2 of the NFL this year as they led by six points approaching the final quarter of Sunday’s third round with Kildare.
However, the dismissal of Kildare’s Ben McCormack on a straight red card rather than helping Clare certainly hindered them. “I could see what was coming from a long way off,” a frustrated Collins flagged.
He added, “I’d love to find out (what changed), it wasn’t what we wanted them to do, we were going crazy on the line, it was exactly the direct opposite of what we wanted them to do, I’d be very interested to see where this came from”.
As the Kildare fightback grew in momentum, Colm fought in vein to get Clare’s players to drive forward in possession rather than focusing on working the ball backwards. “Everything is fixable but what we did there in that second half is complete football suicide, that is all it was. You could see it was going to happen”.
Things began to unravel when McCormack got his marching orders, the Cratloe clubman acknowledged. “That’s when we really started to do the stupid stuff. Surely to God what put you in the position you were in is what will win the game for you but we didn’t learn that listen”.
Collins continued, “We just went into our shell when it happened instead of attacking Kildare and keep going after the result, it’s done now, that’s it, we have to get ready for Saturday night”.
Numerical advantages failed to hold up in the game. When Alan Sweeney received a black card in the opening half, Clare kicked the next 0-03 without reply while the disadvantage resulted in Kildare’s greatest spell. “When Ben got sent off it seemed to be the signal for us to do stupid stuff, that was it. The first half was excellent, five turnovers and really the type of football you want to be playing, Ben’s sending off seemed to be the signal for us to play stupid”.
Referee David Murnane did not influence the result, Collins stressed, despite members of the media and supporters criticising the Cork official. “I’ll quote the Brian Clough ‘I won’t break that habit’. I’ve nothing to say against referees. To be brutally honest, the referee was not the cause of us losing the game, we lost the game ourselves one hundred percent, we’ve no referee to blame for that”.
Comparisons with this clash and their one point win over Louth were not accurate, he felt. “It wasn’t the reverse, we should have won that game comfortably, okay we snatched it at the end but we were totally dominant in that game, we had a load of shots on goal but the radar was off. This was a game we could have won no question but it’s ourselves that lost the game not that Kildare won it”.
