Crisp ‘Cookie’ delivers in Carrick

ELICTING a few post-match comments from Mark ‘Cookie’ McCarthy was a seamless exercise until a stream of his team-mates strolled by. Lending a momentary ear to what he had to say, they couldn’t pass the opportunity to toss a jovial dig or two at the Kilmurry Ibrickane forward, who had given his last drop for Clare in Páirc Seán.

Laid up with a cruciate knee injury, from November 2011 until Kilmurry Ibrickane’s Munster Club Championship quarter-final defeat to Dr Croke’s last October, McCarthy looks fresh and eager. He played a crucial role in setting up David Tubridy’s goal, three minutes into first-half injury time, scored a point from play and was fouled for two frees pointed by the Doonbeg man.

Still, McCarthy knows he could have buried at least two goals. He was a bit unlucky not to finish Gary Brennan’s diagonal cross six minutes into the second half but luck wasn’t a factor in Cookie’s 13th minute first-half miss.

“I’m allergic to scoring goals at this stage. I’ll just pop them off anymore if I can at all,” he laughed.

Tubridy’s free, from near the sideline, was broken by Brennan. McCarthy pounced on the break, burst through and everyone in Carrick-on-Shannon thought the umpire was about to flutter the green flag.

“Gary did very well to break it. I tried to pick my spot but it just screwed off the boot a bit. It was a bad miss in fairness. It would have settled us down a bit earlier,” the Clare corner-forward reflected.
Cookie’s role in setting up Tubridy’s goal was pivotal. He caught Cathal O’Connor’s delivery, held off Leitrim full-back Ciarán Egan and popped it to his in-rushing colleague, who palmed to the net.

“I was going straight through and I heard the call. I said I’d better pass it, in case at all I’d miss. I’d have been whipped off if I had messed that one up,” McCarthy feels.

Aside from his role in those crucial scores, McCarthy made intelligent, unselfish runs in tandem with Rory Donnelly and was always available when a Clare man needed someone to show.

“The ball was pumped in a hundred times faster than last week. When good ball comes in, it’s easy make the runs,” he said, adding that he enjoyed playing alongside Donnelly and Tubridy.

“It’s very easy play with good players. There’s an understanding there if you get the call, you just move out of the way. It’s easy once you’re playing with good lads and good ball is coming in. It was great to come up here and get a win. We needed to up the performance after last week. From my own point of view, it was grand to have played well and get another 70 minutes under the belt. I haven’t played too much football in the last year or so. It feels good now to get back into the swing of things with Clare again,” the effervescent attacker acknowledged.

Had Clare lost, filling the time until their next game, away to Offaly on March 3, would have been a huge challenge for players and management.

“It would have been impossible to lift yourself. If we hadn’t won today, we would have just had to focus on championship. But now the league is still in the balance,” McCarthy surmised.

At that, the interview closed. The jibes were, at this stage, liberally flying in Cookie’s direction. He took the ‘jawing’ well though, admitting that his team-mates would have left him alone if there was the faintest chance he would have said nothing to them in the same situation.