*Cratloe manager Colm Collins. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Cratloe manager Colm Collins was clearly very disappointed with the outcome of the senior football final.
As Cratloe supporters left Cusack Park, some were strong in their criticism of Niall Quinn’s handling of the contest but the South Clare club’s manager refused to criticise the match official.
“I have spent my life saying nothing about referees and I am not going to start now”, was the manager’s reply when asked what he thought of the referee’s performance.
Amongst the talking points were the decision to disallow a Cratloe goal midway through the second half and the failure of the match official to issue a black card to Kilmurry-Ibrickane defender, Martin McMahon shortly after the disallowed goal incident.
“The result is very disappointing for us. I felt some of the scores we got in previous games, we didn’t get today. We needed to get them, obviously it was going to be a very tight game. It is disappointing as the scores we got in other games didn’t go over today”, the Kilmihil native stated.
Labelling Kilmurry-Ibrickane’s goal as “a crucial score”, Collins remarked, “I would be very interested to see the other goal,” referring to Conal O’Hanlon’s green flag midway through the second half.
Collins felt Kilmurry had “an edge in the first half but I thought we controlled the play in the second half but just didn’t get the scores for what we were doing. We just weren’t putting it on the scoreboard. If we did we would have been in a better position but it wasn’t to be”, the Clare boss lamented.
There was some consolation for the Cratloe men as Cathal McInerney picked up the championship top scorer award with a total of 1-27(30 points) to his credit for the campaign.
