Cork deliver the required response against Clare

Jimmy Barry-Murphy never gives much away, although sometimes his face does. Words like relief and delight and deep down satisfaction were written all over it after this, and for good reason.

It wasn’t just the fair hammering they gave Clare on Saturday night: it was the nature of it. After meekly surrendering themselves to Kilkenny the previous week, this was armed rebellion in comparison, with that attitude and will to win that Barry-Murphy always prides.

“We were very disappointed, ourselves and the players, with the performance last week,” said Barry-Murphy. “From that point of view, we were looking for a reaction. So I’m thrilled with the way they played, couldn’t be happier.

“We’d looked at the Kilkenny game, and we didn’t just make mistakes. There were a lot of aspects to the game we weren’t happy with. When you play Kilkenny you’ve to take it on the chin and learn from it, and they certainly did that tonight.”

Almost unrecognisable

Cork were almost unrecognisable from the performance a week ago, with Davy Fitzgerald, the Clare manager, neatly summing it by suggesting “they must have imported another 15 players” before also conceding “or maybe the opposition just weren’t as good”.

It was the bit of both, actually: Patrick Horgan was in impeccable form for Cork, striking 0-14 (including four from play), Luke O’Farrell raged for much of the night, scoring 1-1, while Conor Lehane hit Clare when it hurt most, with several long-range points in the second half, as they fully eared their 10-point win.

Alan Cadogan tortured Clare with his pacing runs towards goal. Even with some typically inspired goalkeeping from Anthony Nash it was a wonder Cork didn’t win by more.

But Clare actually started well, the sides level five times in the first half, although with Clare getting their noses in front first, thanks to the placed-ball accuracy of Colin Ryan, and fine points from Bobby Duggan and John Conlon. But once Cork turned up the pressure with O’Farrell’s goal on 22 minutes and then raised it again in the second half, Clare had no response.

“I’m disappointed, puzzled real,” added Fitzgerald. “I don’t like being beaten by 10 points. Certainly it’s hard. Because the lads have been training very hard, since November. I’m not going to lay a finger of blame on them.

“Cork were the better team, 100 per cent. I thought their attitude was very good but that’s the way you have to play if you’re to go anywhere. Cork will be a force going forward if they can keep that consistency. We’re improving slowly but it’s the 20th of February, we’ll see where we are in May or June. If we’re still that way we’re in trouble.”

Sustained threat

Clare will have the likes of Tony Kelly back by then, but still they lacked any sustained threat in front of goal, Shane O’Donnell kept very quiet, with David Reidy, Bobby Duggan and Patrick Donnellan all replaced before the end.

They looked like a tired side, which for this time of year may well reflect the heavy training load of recent weeks. But with spring not far off, and Tipperary up next after the break, it definitely won’t get any easier.

“We had three or four guys playing Fitzgibbon during the week, but I don’t think we can use that as an excuse either,” said Fitzgerald. “We were poor, we weren’t good enough and we certainly are going to have to address that in a big way.

“If we play again like we did in the second half, every team we play this year is going to beat us. In saying that the first 25 minutes was a lot better than what we played last week. Last week I thought we were very poor. We got 25 minutes here but we need to be more consistent.

With defeats from their first two games, Clare are now the only Division 1A team that are still chasing their first points as the Allianz League already approaches the halfway mark.