Cleary says win gives team ‘boost’ ahead of Donegal

CORK manager John Cleary showed a calmness under the stand at Cusack Park after his side’s win over Clare last Saturday night that was a long way from the emotionally charged man (particularly in the first half) tasked with bringing back the good days to Cork football.

Cleary kicked every ball, felt every blow and battled for every decision during the game but when it was all over it was relief and joy that took over the manager.

“We are delighted to get over the line,” said Cleary when answering questions after his sides significant win on Saturday night.

“I thought we played well in the first half, particularly our defence who were outstanding. We held Clare scoreless from play in the first half.”

Cleary and his team knew that the opposition would fight back after the interval and prepared for that eventuality at the break.

“We said at half-time that Clare are going to get their purple patch in but we should have been out of sight before that. In fairness when Clare levelled it, momentum l ook ed to be going against us but we settled down and in fairness our bench, again, made an impact.

“We got a few great points and it was a case of then holding out there at the end. The ball that was sent in late on could have gone anywhere.”

Cork have fell to Clare on far too many occasions in recent years with one game standing out for Cleary.

“We came up here last year and got a sucker punch and were beaten. It’s not an easy place to come for Cork teams over the years so we are delighted with the win and we can worry about the performance next week.”

Cleary saw plenty to impress him on the night however it was Cork’s ability to bounce back when Clare hit them hard that stood out most for the Castlehaven man.

“We didn’t panic at any stage. Even when Clare got the goal, the resulting kick-outs were excellent I thought. We won contested kickouts and got points from it.

“We showed composure to put the ball over the bar. A lot of these games come down to the last five or six minutes and as I said, we showed composure to get over the line.”

It is obvious for those that were willing to look that this Cork team are a side on the up with a host of very credible results after losing their opening three encounters in the Allianz national Football League earlier in the year.

Cork saved their league status thanks to four games without a loss before going on to beat Limerick in Munster and put in a credible shift against Kerry in the semi-finals.

Now Cork have put Clare away and look to be on their way to the knock-out stages, this with two games still remaining in the round robin stages – that said, another positive result against either Donegal or Tyrone would do nicely for the rebels.

“When we went down to Killarney in the last game, we were quietly confident in ourselves and we had a lot of regrets about that game.

“Coming up here, we knew it was going to be difficult. We had seen Clare against Kerry in the Munster final and for a lot of it, they were very impressive.

“It was a battle out there this evening but most importantly we got the win and we will drive on now for Donegal in two weeks’ time. Last year, we didn’t have the luck when we came up here. At the end today, we had the bit of luck, we’ll take it, and we’ll move on.”

The win against Clare was important as Cleary is a fan of momentum and at the moment Cork have some on their side.

“If we had been going in to face Donegal off the back of a defeat, heads would have been a bit down. This will give us a boost. Victory in championship always gives a big boost. As for the performance, hopefully we can improve on that for the next day.”

Cork will look to unsettle Donegal next week and look to create even more excitement around a side that really are showing themselves to be much more than a team that are just making up the numbers.