'Back to the drawing board now': No excuses from Cleary after heavy defeat in Derry

Cork’s Luke Fahy and Derry's Diarmuid Baker. Pic: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho

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 at one stage 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.

“Derry were excellent on the day. They were really up for it and they punished us. 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.

Cork’s Dara Sheedy with Derry’s Shane McGuigan and Matthew Downey. Pic: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho

“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. Ian Maguire was suspended, Brian O’Driscoll, Seán Brady, Tommy Walsh, Mark Cronin and Brian Hurley are injured.

“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 two 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,” Cleary concluded.