So it transpired, but the visitors make hard work of it. In the last minute of four additional minutes of injury time, Clare lay siege to the Cork goal, landing in high balls in search of a winning goal. But John Cleary’s side survived the bombardment to earn a precious win.
Both counties appreciated the importance of a winning start with Donegal and Tyrone in the same group and three to qualify, with Tyrone’s joint manager Brian Dooher in the audience. Despite missing seven of the side that celebrated a first championship win over Cork in 26 years last season, Clare are usually a force to be reckoned with in Ennis, and Mark Fitzgerald has created a resolute side in transition that’s well-drilled and honest but lacking the attacking finesse needed to win matches like this.
They came from six points down, five at half-time, boosted by an Aaron Griffin goal kicked off the deck in the 44th minute, set up by Manus Doherty, who had a storming second half surging up the field. And in the 58th minute, a 45 by Ciarán Downes drew them level, 1-8 a piece, but Cork still had enough to find a path to victory.
Ultimately, for all their faults, the visitors had more scoring power and variation and a better bounce off the bench with Mark Cronin and Steven Sherlock introduced and getting on the scoresheet.
But they kicked some bad wides and dropped five short, while Brian O’Driscoll had a flash-back to a goal miss in last year’s loss in Ennis when a fisted effort came back off the crossbar early in the second half after Daniel Walsh cut two points off the Cork lead, trimming it to four.
Cork hadn’t played in a month since a three-point defeat to Kerry in Killarney and will need to sharpen up for their next assignment against Donegal at home in a fortnight.
Cork made the more impressive start and went into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead with smart scores from Conor Corbett, Colm O’Callaghan and Brian Hurley in the opening nine minutes. It took Clare another two minutes to raise their first flag, Downes converting a 45m free won by goalkeeper Stephen Ryan.
But they were soon on the backfoot when Dermot Coughlan was turned over under pressure from two Cork players and the counter-attack ended with O’Callaghan finding Seán Powter, who tapped the ball over Ryan and into an empty goal in the 17th minute.
Hurley added a point to open a six-point lead and Clare were unable to engineer a score from play in the first half, all four of their points coming from frees.
Cork’s first-half tally of 1-6 could have been better, too, but they kicked four wides, including a scarcely believable missed free by Hurley from around 20m slightly to the right of the Clare goal.
In the second half, he also dropped two more efforts short. The frustration was evident in their manager, John Cleary, making his agitation clear.
Clare were frequently turned over and looked short of ideas when they took the ball into the Cork half. Five down at the interval, it was hard to see where they would find the firepower needed to turn the match around, but they managed it. Although, it just wasn’t enough.
SCORERS – Cork: B Hurley 0-3 (1 f); P Walsh, S Sherlock (1f), M Cronin (f) 0-2 each; S Powter 1-0; C Corbett, C O’Callaghan, C Óg Jones, T Walsh 0-1 each. Clare: E McMahon 0-5 (5f); A Griffin 1-0; D Walsh, C Downes (1f, 1 45) 0-2 each; J Stack, D Coughlan 0-1 each.
CORK: C Kelly; K Flahive, D O’Mahony, M Shanley; R Maguire, T Walsh, M Taylor; I Maguire, C O’Callaghan; P Walsh, S Powter, B O’Driscoll; C Óg Jones, C Corbett, B Hurley. Subs: M Cronin for Powter (55); S Sherlock for Jones (59); R Deane for Corbett (59); E McSweeney for Hurley (76); J O’Rourke for P Walsh (73).
CLARE: S Ryan; C Brennan, M Doherty, R Lanigan; A Sweeney, I Ugweru, C Rouine; D Bohannon, B McNamara; G Murray, D Coughlan, D Walsh; E McMahon, A Griffin, C Downes. Subs: M Garry for Sweeney (33); E O’Connor for Murray (53); J Stack for Downes (58); J McGann for Griffin (68), M McInerney for Rouine (73).
REFEREE: Sean Lonergan (Tipperary).
