This article is from page 103 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 103 JPG
WHEN Mick Darby landed back in the dressing room to tumultuous ap- plause, his first reaction was to turn on his heels and head back for the sanctuay of some open ait.
Not because he wanted to get away from the party, just because he felt it would be easier to field press queries if he was a few steps removed from the madding crowd that was gather- ing inside.
Once outside, the man from Rhode in Offaly talked about his team’s g1- ant step along the road to what he hopes will be a Munster champion- ship winning year.
A giant step, he agreed, but not a giant-killing one against the storied ‘Barrs from the Togher area of Cork City.
“What really pleased me about today was that this Kilmihil team showed St Finbarr’s the respect they were entitled to get, but then went about winning the game,” he said.
“These lads are still very young and are only learning, but they’re as good as what’s out there in this com- petition. It’s just a matter of applying themselves on the day and they did dere
“It was a great performance and it showed that they are maturing as a team. They defended really well near the end and held possession very well when they needed to. They worked very hard for each other.
“The points we got before half- time was the lift we needed going in. Those three points gave the lads that extra bit of self-belief,’ added Darby.
Thirty minutes were down, and
Darby sensed that there was more to come. “I knew in the dressing room at half-time that we were going to give it another 30 minutes of a blast in the second half.
“All we asked them was to give us everything they had for that 30 min- utes and they did that. They dug very deep to win. They played very good football to win and you can see that they’re enjoying it.
“We came under a bit of pressure like we did in the Ballysteen game, but we didn’t concede in either game and that’s down to the good workrate we have all around the field.
“If it had stopped here today, it
would have been a big blow to the lads because they’ve spent so much time together over the past year. They’d actually miss each other’s company. They’re determined to keep on winning.”
One will do as they face down St Michael’s Foilmore from deepest south Kerry.
“T don’t know who we’re playing,’ revealed Darby, “so we’ll give it a cut and see how we go.”
They’ve given it a cut all year.