*Kilmihil’s Ciaran Downes. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
KILMIHIL will line out in the Clare SFC relegation final for the second year running but this time round they have produced much stronger performances.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SFC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel.
Despite a heavy opening round defeat to Lissycasey for the second year in a row, Kilmihil bounced back this time to overcome Ennistymon in round two before narrowly falling short to Doonbeg in round three and Kildysart in the relegation semi-final.
They face reigning intermediate champions Wolfe Tones on Saturday afternoon in Clarecastle with the winner remaining in the top tier.
While their position remains the same, they have delivered better displays along the way, manager Michael Doran maintained. “I made the point after the Doonbeg game that it wasn’t a performance of a team that has any business going down to intermediate”.
“We have to carry that through, we were a kick of the ball between going to a quarter-final and being in this position but moral victories don’t get you anything, you have to get the scores on the board”.
Having scored a goal via Gavin Downes heading into additional time of the relegation play off, Kilmihil conceded four points in three minutes to lose out to Kildysart. “The manner of it giving ourselves that lead with a couple of minutes still to play, we should be able to see it out in those instances but I think we struggled around the middle with breaking ball and kickouts for a lot of the game although I think we played the better football but when you’re not winning primary possession you can run into issues which is where I think the game was lost” .
Dan Keating’s ability to secure primary possession in the air saw Kildysart focus on just breaking the ball and cleaning up the spillage, a tactic which hurt Kilmihil. “They got their big men in the right positions and freed them up to be able to get a run at it, we made a few tweaks at half time to try get away from where they were taking up space and it worked for a bit but unfortunately we had tired bodies in the middle at the end and they were able to get those couple of balls”.
Kicking 1-3 from play in the relegation semi-final was a source of disappointment. “With the possession we had, we seemed to play really great football until the final third and it is creating those scoring chances in scoring positions and not forcing us into taking wild shots that we did, in particular in the first half. I thought we got back into it a bit more in the second half, Sean Crowley got on the ball in the right positions and was able to probe their defensive line and break through but we just needed more of that, getting our ball carriers on the ball and looking for gaps, definitely we need to be scoring more from play and we need to be impacting the scoreboard a lot more”.
Doran added, “We’ve been in this position last year, we regrouped after a tough defeat to Doonbeg and we will have to do the same again, I’ve great faith in the lads in the group, there’s been a huge growth in culture and belief, we trust that we can carry that through to the next day”.
