It wasn’t one for the faint-hearted as Clare had three points to spare over Limerick in the Munster Senior Football Championship, manager Colm Collins is happy with the result but is well aware of the work that lies ahead.
Speaking after their quarter-final win, Collins said that he didn’t enjoy the game. “No I did not, I suppose we didn’t play well and a lot of good things that we’ve been working on and doing all along just didn’t happen for us today so I’m delighted that we won the match and we’re going to Killarney in two weeks time”.
According to the Kilmihill native, the opening twenty minutes were very flat. “At that point Limerick had five wides which I don’t think any of them were particularly difficult shots, the fellas that shot will be saying to themselves ‘why didn’t I score’. We were fortunate that they weren’t ahead, we were going in at half-time one point up after a terrible performance. These kind of things happen with teams and the essential thing with Championship is that you get the result and we’re going down there and we’ll see what happens with Cathal O’Connor, he’s a bang on his hand so he’s going in for x-ray now that’s the only worry”.
Coolmeen’s O’Connor was replaced after thirty three minutes. Colm is quiet satisfied with how Clare coped despite losing the towering ball-winner and believes it didn’t affect their game. “I’d hate to lose Cathal because he’s an outstanding player and he’s had a great year for us but there are also loads of players like I’m sure Shane McGrath is devastated he’s not on the starting fifteen, he’s been a great player for Clare in the past and played very well when he came on so I’m sure if worst comes to worst that Shane will step up to the mark”.
While he never felt Clare were going to lose this game at the same time he didn’t consider the game to be over at any stage. “No I didn’t, I think after we went ahead at half-time we always led but I suppose having said that when it’s a one score game you’re always there a deflection or anything and the ball is in the back of the net, you were never at ease if you know what I mean like a lot of times when they play you know that they’re in control and they’re going to win it but today was a tough one it was real championship”.
Over the seventy minutes Clare failed to raise a green flag, Collins bemoaned their missed goal chances but highlighted the role Limerick’s very defensive system had on the game. “Limerick came here with a really good defensive system and implemented it really well and when you come up against a defence like that and you carve open goal chances you’ve got to take them that’s the key and when you take them then they’ve an option of whether they want to come out and play or else it’s damage limitation so unfortunately we spurned the goal chances which put us under pressure. On the other side of things we got some very good scores, some really good scores and I think most of our scores came from play. A big improvement required in Killarney but it’s in them so I’m not so concerned”.
Equally Colm was as pleased with how his defenders played. “Defence was very strong, we’ve a lot of good players in defence and they worked really hard. We’d be unhappy with some of the shots we allowed them take in the first half, we should have been pressing on them and been closer to them, there’s a good bit of work to do but with this group of players they’re well capable of it”.
He added “The second half was better, the first half performance was terrible, anybody that paid money to come into watch that first half it was awful stuff and it’s not the way we want to play football but that’s what happened today”.
Following on from the win, Colm and his management team now plan to dissect why Clare appeared to be so flat for the opening half. “Championship is Championship and while we never underestimated Limerick in any shape or form, I mean I kept banging on during the week about that great team with John Galvin with Limerick, they always had trouble with Clare, championship is a great leveller. But I do think that we were flat today for whatever reason and we got to get together and come to the bottom of it and go to Killarney with a way better display than today because if we go to Killarney with today’s display it won’t be pretty.”
Their half-time discussion focused on how to regroup and get going, this was aided by the contribution from the bench. “It was something, we just felt that if we got them in and you know and regrouped and we talked about what we weren’t doing so well, in fairness a good few of them upped their game in the second half and I thought it was much better and we got a good contribution from the line, our substitutes did very well, all of them contributed really well so that was another positive.”
Next up is a Munster semi-final with Kerry in two weeks time. Collins now in his third year as Banner boss doesn’t think Éamonn Fitzmaurice and those in the Kingdom will be losing too much sleep ahead of their Killarney date. “Nothing bothering us going into Killarney now and Kerry I don’t think they’ll have left the Gaelic Grounds today too worried. We’ve two weeks now to prepare for that and we will and hopefully put in a really good display down there”.