O’connor: Our boys stood up
an absolute dog-eat-dog inter-county environment.
“All we’ve done is won a game. If you don’t feel pressure in this job, then you’re not doing it right because there is phenomenal expectation from the Clare supporters and ourselves. We deliberately put pressure on the players and ourselves.
“That’s the real beauty of today, when it really mattered, we showed our character and we delivered on the ability that we know is deep within this team.”
Reflecting on Galvin’s goal which turned the tide in his side’s favour, O’connor added: “He showed tremendous composure but Ian’s an assassin. He’s been showing that form all year in training and ultimately we challenged him all week, that he needed to deliver on the promise he’d been showing in training. He was calmness personified with the finish.”
Another hero was Peter Duggan, who finished with a tally of 0-15. His only two scores from play being the last two which won the game for Clare.
“Peter is a great fighter with an incredible skill level,” said O’connor’s fellow joint-manager Donal Moloney.
“There are very few lads who would pull off that last point under such pressure.
“There are very few lads who would even think about going for it but there was nobody inside him so he just let rip. He’d a very big last 20 minutes.”