By Cian O'Connell

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Clare manager Colm Collins is thrilled that the Banner will be involved in an All Ireland quarter final tie at Croke Park.

On Saturday Clare produced a gritty display to defeat Roscommon in an interesting Round 4A qualifier at Pearse Stadium.

"It was a very special day for Clare football and for all the people that followed us in the bad times," Collins admitted.

A fiery first half effort from Clare featured two smashing goals which delighted Collins. "Yeah, it was a great first-half," Collins commented. "We created a few goal chances and got two out of three. We are delighted.

"It is very important that this isn't a stand-alone thing for Clare football, that we get our structures right underneath and the great work that is being done at development squad level continues. 

"That young fellas want to play football for Clare and they are given coaching, coaching and more coaching. That it is all about the ball and all about skills, and that is very important that we underpin these kind of days with the work at the bottom."

Roscommon joint manager Kevin McStay felt the 'six day turnaround' was a crucial factor.

"We were not up for it, the six days is obvious, you know the stats," McStay said. "It is a very tough one to manage. If we were going to rise.

"I thought we’d be the match of Clare. Six day turnaround and going to play Dublin or Kerry or someone you’d be up against it. It was Clare we were playing coming from Division 3 and we are Division 1 and we felt we’d match them,but the evidence didn’t match up.

"I want to wish Clare the best of luck, it’s an historic day for them and it was no contest in the end."