This article is from page 64 of the 2011-05-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 64 JPG
THE real job of journeywork was the prize of winning promotion back to Division 2 for 2012 was already in the bag – this was about climbing back up the league ladder as champions.
When it was duly achieved after 60 minutes, many of them nervous before the calm waters of the second half when Clare shook the rigging of Fermanagh’s net three times, manager David O’Brien was quick to jump on the significance of the four-point success.
“Yes we were promoted before a ball was kicked, but we wanted this national title badly,” he said. “When there’s a cup to be played for, you want to win it. You don’t want to lose anything you enter.
“We were disappointed with the first half, because we were so caught up in our determination not to con cede goals to them as we did in the league game in Clarecastle that we forget to play ourselves.
“It was all about containing them. At half-time we knew what they had, but felt we hadn’t given anything ourselves, but then we upped it in the second half and played a lot better.
“We had the breeze in the second half and it was a lot stronger than it looked. We felt that if we got enough ball in that we’d do. We moved the ball that little bit quicker for the first ten minutes of the second half while Niamh Keane was off the field.”
It was in that ten minutes when Clare were down to 14 players that they struck for the crucial opening goal, with Marie Considine’s strike putting a goal between the sides for the first time – the most important score of the game, according to O’Brien.
“Fermanagh wanted to play a sweeper in the second half but once we got ahead with our first goal, they had to push on. The longer it was level, the longer they would have been able to keep using a sweeper to keep us out, but once we went four or five points up they couldn’t play that system and it opened it up a bit more for us.
“The second goal was the clincher. It put us seven points up and I know they came back at the end of it, but it was more or less game over when we went five or six up. You couldn’t see them outscoring us from then on,” he added.
The win means that Clare will go into their Munster semi-final meeting with Division 1 champions Cork as national champions in their own right – a game that O’Brien says won’t be about Clare just making up the numbers against the best team in Ireland.
“No one is going to give us a chance, but if we can give a good defensive display, our forwards will always scores,” he told The Clare People defiantly.
“Last year Cork beat us well in the Munster final, but we still hit 2-10. If we don’t concede much we have a chance and we have to believe in ourselves in the next seven weeks that we have a chance.
“If you don’t beat Cork we are in the Qualifiers, but the easiest way to get from A to B is in a straight line. We want to go through the front door and reach another Munster Final.
“There’s no point turning around seven weeks before we play Cork and start thinking of back doors. We might as well not bother training for the next seven weeks if we think that.
“We must believe that we can beat Cork and that’s all we can train for from now on. We’re looking forward to taking them on because beating them is what this Clare teams has to aspire to,” added O’Brien.