Fintan O'Toole Reports from Cusack Park, Ennis

FOR ALL THE strides Colm Collins has made as Clare manager, today in Ennis surpassed everything that had gone before for him.

Clare’s qualifier milestones and league development have been flagged but failing to beat one of the traditional Munster big two was a blot on their copybook in the eyes of Collins.

Add in the pressure for this tie with the implications of where they would play the summer football after Division 2 relegation hit them last month, and the jubilation felt the Clare boss after the match was easy to understand.

“Definitely the biggest. We haven’t done really well in Munster championship.I mean players want to play in the All-Ireland. This is moving them a step closer to that.

“It’s massive. We had a tough time in the league in the sense that we played well in games and got nothing out of some of the times that we played well, so it was great to win and especially to beat Cork.

“It would have been Cork’s third win on Clare soil (this year), so I’m afraid I could have been for the bullet if that had happened! Clare people wouldn’t have been too pleased, so thankfully it’s 2-1 to Cork.”

Natasha Barton / INPHO Natasha Barton / INPHO / INPHO

Clare targeted Cork’s rich run of goalscoring form as an area that needed addressing.

“Listen the two boys, Mattie (Taylor) and Sean (Powter) have been absolutely outstanding in the league,” said Collins.

“You’d want to be a blind man not to pay heed to that and deal with that because they’ve been crucial to Cork. Both of them coming on the end of moves, sticking the ball in the back of the net. They’re two great players, so thankfully today we kept them relatively quiet.

“We’d worked a lot on defence and on dealing with that whole area so we’re delighted that we kept a clean sheet and against a team that’s been scoring so freely as Cork, it’s not a bad achievement.”

Clare goalkeeper Stephen Ryan with Cork's Ruairi Deane and Steven Sherlock. Natasha Barton / INPHO Natasha Barton / INPHO / INPHO

Match-winner Cillian Rouine was hailed for his scoring intervention.

“His (selection) was a very tight call, there was a couple of really good candidates for that position, that was the reason he got the call because he’s such an attacking force. He’s got brilliant pace and he’s a good ball-player and thankfully he was cool enough to take the right decision at the end.”

That joy in the Clare camp will need to be quickly tempered. Their next assignment will swing into view in a fortnight. Limerick conquered them last season.

“It’s very important now that everybody keeps their eyes on the ball. We’ve got a very important game in two weeks time and that’s vital. We’ll be approaching that, that’s the team that kicked us out of the championship last year so we’ll be taking nothing for granted.”

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