Allen: ‘If we were to pick anybody, Naughton was the fella’

EVEN the birds in the sky felt impelled to take in the intoxicating drama as the nail-biting crescendo approached.

With 12 minutes to go, a pair of crows swept in underneath the roof of the towering Hogan Stand to perch on one of the many booming speakers hanging from its underbelly. They were just in time.

Around about the same time, Cathal Naughton was racing onto the field in place of Neil Ronan and before the thousands of watching neutrals around the country could say ‘Cathal who?’ the young Newtownshandrum man had a goal and a point to his name.

Even the roar that erupted when his 59th minute strike hit the net wasn’t enough to send the feathered friends flying. This was simply too good to miss.

With Ronan finally handed a starting berth recently, the suspicion was that Cork’s bench had little to offer. In picking Ronan, they had ‘robbed Peter to pay Paul’ but that was before Allen seemed to pull off his match-switching masterstroke.

Not that the Cork manager would put it that way. The way John Allen explains it, it was blindingly obvious that he should throw in a youngster not long out of minor and with just one league appearance to his name for the county seniors.

“I would say Cathal Naughton probably didn’t expect to play today but we just felt there was a lot of space down that side all the second half. Cathal Naughton is a speedy player,” said Allen.

“He’s a young fella. His touch was very good during the week. His form was excellent at training. It was a case of a player in form got his chance and he took it. If we were to pick anybody he was the fella.”

Naughton may be new to the camp but his devastating contribution epitomised the spirit that has made this Cork side great. Not for the first time yesterday they edged a big game with the bare minimum to spare.

That they did so in the end was down to Donal Óg Cusack’s timely intervention deep into injury time when he batted down Ken McGrath’s last ditch free. Letting it go over the bar would have been the less risky option — who can forget Noel Sheehy’s carbon copy attempt in 1984 against the Rebels? Cusack’s save a good three feet above his crossbar made it abundantly clear that Cork would not settle for a draw.

If that was the clincher, then his performance throughout the afternoon was just as crucial. Time and again he devoured dangerous balls dropping into his goalmouth on a day when the sliotar had all the elusiveness of a wet bar of soap.

“I said it the last day (against Limerick), Donal Óg is the ultimate professional,” said Allen. “Donal Óg lives for hurling. Donal Óg trains like a professional even though he has a day job. I have the ultimate confidence every time Donal Óg goes near the ball that he will do the right thing with it.

“He has done that many times this year in challenge games and league games where he stopped the ball going over the bar. I’m so delighted that he got the man of the match award because he certainly deserved it.”

Cusack’s assuredness was all the more impressive given the underfoot conditions. Cyril Farrell said the pitch made the match a lottery at half-time and Justin McCarthy said nothing less than spikes would be required for players to keep their footing.

Allen didn’t contradict his opposite number’s claim. “You saw it yourself, particularly in the first half and the first 15 minutes. Fellas were just sliding everywhere. It has an affect on fellas’ confidence. They are coming for a ball and, the next thing, they are on the ground.”

“(That game was) the same as we’ve had against Waterford over the past four years — fantastic games, very little between any of the teams on any of the days,” said Allen.

“I’m delighted we won today.”

The most important of all lies ahead of them, the chance to win the first three-in-a-row since their predeccesors in the 1970s and it remains to be seen if the county championship will proceed as normal or if some leeway will be given between now and then.

“There will be a lot of planning and clever training and getting everything right,” said Allen. “We’re not going to go into hysterics about training. We’ll do everything properly and do what we have done over the past few years.”