CORK MANAGER JOHN Cleary hailed his players for claiming the scalp of an elite team after their striking comeback took down Mayo this afternoon.
Trailing by six points after Tommy Conroy’s goal early in the final quarter, Cork took control in remarkable fashion as they reeled off 1-6 without reply to claim a three-point success.
The scale of the win saw Cork pip Mayo for a preliminary home quarter-final next weekend but more significantly for Cleary was the fact that they had defeated a top-ranked team, after coming close this year against the likes of Dublin and Kerry.
“There was a big difference between two points and three points in winning the game. All it does is takes us to another round.
“I think the big belief comes from beating a Division 1 team. We needed to do that and there were a lot of doubters there – and maybe we hadn’t done anything to deserve the plaudits.
“We knew that we couldn’t get to the next level until we first of all beat a Division 1 team once, and then maybe try to start doing it on a regular basis. It’s only then that we’ll really see if we’re making progress up along the line.
“But we did need to get a Division 1 scalp under our belts. That last free, our hearts were in our mouths because it would have been bittersweet to come away with a two-point victory. At least the victory meant something.”
Cork’s resilience surfaced in their storming finish to the match, while the contribution of their substitutes was critical, in particular Steven Sherlock’s tally of 1-5.
“I know that we wouldn’t die,” said Cleary., “but I felt that maybe Mayo might have a bit too much.
“I did feel, looking at the pitch, that Mayo were tiring a little bit and we got great impetus from the bench. Sometimes, when you’re that much up, you retreat a lot and I could see their line trying to get them up the field and there were holes there.
“Look, Steven (Sherlock) is a class player. It’s how we can use him and how he can contribute to the panel and the group that’s very important. All I asked of every fella this morning was to do their job, whatever job they had to do — it might be one minute, it might be 70 minutes.
“In fairness, Colm O’Callaghan made a massive run for the penalty. We were only three points behind then and there were ten minutes left. The icing on the cake was to get a three-point win – maybe we’d have been heading up north next weekend if we didn’t get that.
“We’ll dust ourselves down now and next weekend will come fairly fast.”
Sherlock has needed to be patient in adjusting to his role coming off the bench but the St Finbarr’s sharpshooter was instrumental in this outcome.
“I’m happy enough, look you’d be itching to get on, you’d be itching to play from the start,” said Sherlock.
“But look my job as a forward is to score and I done that when I came on. I’m 26 years of age now, I’m around a bit on the senior panel and I know how it works. Even since the Louth game, even since the Kerry game, I’m itching to play. I’m in good form. So look I knew full well when I got on, I was going to go for the jugular and thankfully it came off.
“This team is full of character. That’s the one thing we always talk about and especially when Kevin Walsh came in, to be competing towards the very end of games. Look you’re going to have bumps on the road, especially when you’re a team that’s in transition. We lost against Meath in the first game of the year and we went up and beat Kildare well, so we’re learning all the time. Kevin is a fantastic coach. He’s one of the best I ever had and he’s drilling stuff into us and the lads are listening.
“I don’t think we’ve actually beaten a big time like that in a long time in championship. The way we did, the way we came back, it’s going to give great confidence to the team. When we were starting to come back there, the crowd really gives you a big, big lift and hopefully we can carry that through now down to next week in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. I’d love to see a big Cork support down there.”
Written by Fintan O’Toole and posted on the42.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say