Dublin slickness the key to Saint’s victory, says Clarke
Ascribing their success over Round Towers in the AIB club decider partly to 'Dublin slickness', it was notable that in a team featuring brothers Rory and Raymond Gallagher from Fermanagh and jointly managed by former Meath star Gerry McEntee, this slickness should have been best exemplified by Declan Darcy.
Darcy, who made his name with Leitrim and had previous experience in the club championship with Aughawillan before transferring his loyalty to his native Dublin was grinning from ear to ear afterwards.
And, in response to suggestions that the first one was a 'square' goal, he had this to say: "I've had a few bits of bad luck in my time, so you take good luck when it comes your way.
"In fairness, a lot of hard work has gone into this. I know we're getting a lot of rewards this year but they're coming after four or five years of serious effort. It's our first championship, but if you look through the records of all the club champions, you have to make hay while the sun shines. We fully appreciate where we are, what we are about. We're no big heads or glory hunters here. We know we're a team as good or as bad as any team left in it and that's all we are doing."
He always envisaged it would be a major challenge to win the title.
"It was always going to be a tough contest. With the calibre of players they have, especially with Glenn Ryan, we knew that there was no way they were going to give us anything handy.
"At the stage I got the point, I knew we needed one to settle things down. They were after getting a bit of a run on us and we hadn't scored in a while. It just happened to be me that got the chance."
Paddy Clarke agrees that Darcy's goals had a vital bearing on the outcome. "They were great. We reckoned we might have a bit of Dublin slickness. Declan was hanging out at the edge of the box for the first, but you ride your luck. These things balance themselves out at the end. Over the course of the season we thought a few shady ones went against us.
"In the first half they dominated the game, but in the second half we opened it up a bit more. That was how we were able to get the goals - by stretching them. We came under serious pressure at times, but throughout the season we have had those crisis times and we learned to live with them. We knew that if we were to be a good team we would have to ride them out, that we would have to devise a plan. You can't be on top all the time. We didn't panic," he said.
Clarke was manager of the Meath minors when they lost Leinster finals to Kildare in 1975 and 1983 and also lost an Ulster club decider when in charge of Kingscourt (against Lavey). "I said I'd die happy if I won a provincial title. It meant a ferocious amount today," he added.
"We have really drawn the short straw by meeting Gaeltacht in the All-Ireland semi-final. From the start they looked the team most likely, but we thought the same in Dublin. Probably the one team we didn't want to play was Na Fianna and we got them in the semi-final and lucky enough it worked out. Gaeltacht will be very difficult opponents."
John Crofton did best to hide his disappointment over the manner of their defeat. On the one hand he credited the Dublin side with having 'a lot of power and pace', he was pleased with the way his team reacted to their first goal and with the way they were able to gain control for a period in the second half.
"After conceding the second goal we got back, but we missed a couple of chances from frees and play. When we didn't convert those, they were always going to counter-attack. The frees we missed were the difference between a point or two behind a point or two in front.
"If they had any chink in their armour it could be exposed if we hit the front. But, we never achieved that. In fact we never even get parity.
"With the amount of ball, we should at least have got level!"
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