Cork boss John Cleary on heavy loss to Derry: 'We were beaten off the field'
Cork boss John Cleary and Derry manager Ciarán Meenagh. Picture: INPHO/Lorcan Doherty
Cork boss John Cleary had no excuses after his side were beaten by Derry in the Allianz Division 2 Football League at Find Insurance Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Rebels lost heavily 1-31 to 0-14 as they dropped points for the first time after four wins on the trot prior to the long trip up north.
The Leesiders made an encouraging start as they led by three points albeit they had the wind.
“We were beaten off the field really,” Cleary said post-match.
“We needed to be in a good position at half-time with that wind. Instead we were down four points. I thought we were very flat, just didn’t come out of the blocks.
"No complaints. Beaten by a better team on the day, disappointed with our own performance.
“It’s back to the drawing board now.”
Derry struck for the first and only goal just before the hooter sounded for the break. It probably was the most important score of the game. It was a real confidence shifter.
“Possibly, yeah. We needed probably to get that goal and we didn’t. That made it a huge uphill struggle in the second half,” Cleary says.
“At times we pushed on and got opened up at the back, but in fairness Derry’s interplay and their scoring was excellent. We had no answer today.
“We tried to push forward and then moves broke down and we got punished. Derry bossed the midfield area from kick-outs big time. That was their platform.”
Cork were down a number of key players for this big promotion encounter, but Cleary didn’t use that as an excuse. It did though hinder the Rebels.
“We have six or seven guys out. I was saying a couple of weeks ago that we had very little injuries.
“That’s not making an excuse because the guys that were out there tried their level best today, but when you take that all of a sudden out of a squad, coming up here, when you need all your experience and you need every guy pulling in the right direction, it definitely makes it harder.
“Last week probably took a lot out of us. Travelling the length of the country up here, it was always going to be tough. This is probably the one weekend we didn’t want to be coming here.”
It’s a setback, no doubt about that, but Cork are still in with a shout of promotion. They have eight points after five games.
“We were on four points two years ago, we’re on eight points now, so we don’t want to throw all the toys out of the pram. If we can learn from this, and as I said, let’s take stock of it and get a few players back. We won’t always have to be coming up the length of the country.
“We were about seven hours travelling yesterday coupled with the guys we were missing. But I suppose the disappointing thing is that we were beaten by so much.”
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