The ball spills as Cian O’Dea tackles Jordan Hayes with Jamie Malone as backup. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
“EVERY POINT IS GOING TO MATTER” in Clare’s bid to maintain their Division 2 status and challenge for promotion, football boss Colm Collins maintained.
Clare began with a merited 1-13 0-07 win over John Maughan’s Offaly in Cusack Park on Sunday. The hosts kicked the final four points without reply while also outscoring the Faithful County 1-09 0-02 in the second half.
Starting with a win was pleasing for Colm Collins. “I’m absolutely delighted with the result and delighted to start off with two points. Offaly are a hard team to play against, they’re very well organised defensively, but you just have to be patient, it can be tough for people watching but Offaly have done well on people losing patience with them, going for the jugular and getting turned over”.
Opting to play against the wind starting off worked in their favour, he believed. “The breeze was very important. We took the chance of playing against it and being down one point at half-time was a good position to be in. In the first half there were times when I thought we gave the ball away unnecessarily but in the second half we were better”.
He was satisfied with their new-look full-back line which included debutant Manus Doherty and Ennistymon’s Cillian Rouine. “I thought we were very solid in the full-back line, ye have all watched the club championship so you know how good these boys are, they are serious footballers, Cillian Rouine has a recurring injury so we took him off. Anybody that was having any problems we took them off because we have a really good bench, some of the lads that didn’t make the twenty six were unlucky and it shows we’re in a good place”.
Stiffer challenges lie on the horizon beginning with Cork away this weekend, the Kilmihil native noted. “This division is tough going, there’ll be points going in all directions. I got a few of the other results from today badly wrong, for instance, but all we’ll think of now is the warm welcome we’ll get down in Cork next Saturday night”.
“We got a great start with the goal after half time, the longer you go without a score you start to doubt yourself but the goal eased off, after that we drove on really well, this division could come to score difference. Every point is going to matter, we’re well aware of that and I thought we managed the game well”.
