Clare manager Colm Collins was delighted to see his side rebound from league disappointments to knock Cork out of the Munster Football Championship.
A second half comeback in Ennis means that Clare must now defeat Limerick in the provincial semi-final to secure a place in the Sam Maguire round-robin.
Collins, speaking to RTÉ Radio's Sunday Sport, suggested that preventing a hat-trick of Rebel successes on Clare soil was as important as championship progression, following McGrath Cup and Division 2 losses to John Cleary's side.
"It was very important in the context of a very disappointing league," he said. "It would have been a third Cork victory on Clare soil this year and we we weren't about to let that happen."
It was also heartening for the Banner boss to see his team come out the right side of a one-point result following some painful defeats.
"We're delighted. Especially in the context of the league, when we lost two games that were tight like that at the very end."
The longest-serving inter-county manager had his work cut out at half-time to reverse the trend of the game and his changes had the desired effect.
"The first half I thought we were conceding some very easy frees, we need to be more careful in the tackle. We were shoooting when we shouldn't have shot. W
"We weren't breaking quickly enough, which we rectified in the second half.
"We broke a lot quicker, now the shooting still I thought some of them weren't on. But we'll work on that.
"Just delighted to be playing Limerick in a Munster semi-final."
For Rebel boss John Cleary it's back to the drawing board, while they wait to see if their Sam Maguire spot is safe. With Munster and Connacht guaranteed to provide a lower league side to the top tier round robin, should a Division 3 or 4 side make the finals in Ulster AND Leinster (other than Westmeath), Cork would be bumped down to Tailteann Cup.
"We won't know until we get back there. Whatever happens, we won't know until the competitions play out. We have a few weeks to lick our wounds but we have no choice only but to get back on the horse and see where it takes us because that is the nature of the competition," Cleary told Sunday Sport.
"After half-time we had a small bit of a cushion but the game was up for grabs and it was Clare who took it by the scruff of the neck.
"At the end of the day we could have nearly scraped a draw or got over the line in the end. In the second half when the game was there for the taking, Clare went and took it and that is why they're victorious today."
However the Cork boss was making no excuses and accepted Clare were the better team in Cusack Park.
"They upped their game and we couldn't live with them. They had 14 wides, so we can have no complaints or hard luck stories.
"Clare were overall the better team so it's back to the drawing board for us."
