*Seanán Kirby celebrates for Corofin. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
HOME COMFORTS of Páirc Finne is leading to increased workrate for Corofin’s footballers.
Corofin booked their place in the Munster IFC club semi-finals with a 1-14 0-10 victory over Waterford intermediate champions Stradbally on Sunday.
Speaking to The Clare Echo shortly after the final whistle sounded, Corofin manager Peadar O’Brien stated, “I’m delighted. They are an experienced team. They played Munster championship last year so they weren’t coming in out of the blue, they knew what it was about. We pulled away in the finish. We made a bit of hard work of it really, could have a few more scores tacked on. It was a good team performance”.
With only one point between the teams in the final quarter, Luke Neylon made a tremendous save for the winners. The goalkeeper has been stepping all season, O’Brien flagged. “In fairness to him he has been doing it all the year. He is a good goalie, a good shot stopper”.
Defensively Corofin were well served with Cilléin Mullins, Marc O’Loughlin and Kevin Keane exceptional. “They tackled in numbers. We have good defenders, they are honest lads and once they work hard you are halfway there”.
In front of their home crowd, Corofin had to get down to work, Peadar insisted. “You expect them to work at home and if they’re not prepared to work at home then we are all wasting our time”.
He added, “We have another two weeks now and we are facing a big challenge against An Gaeltacht. We have it at home, it’s a big challenge. Having it at home is worth a couple of points. All we can do is keep at it and see where we will finish up”.
