*Cillian Rouine charges forward. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ENNISTYMON were within fingertips of reaching successive Clare SFC semi-finals but are left to rue kicking ten wides in the second half of Sunday’s quarter-final.
The Clare Echo’s coverage of the Clare SFC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel
An exciting tie with Cratloe moved from Cusack Park to Páirc Finne in Corofin went all the way to extra time when Podge Collins got the decisive score to send the South Clare side to the last four at the expense of Ennistymon.
Offering his thoughts, Ennistymon manager Declan Downes outlined, “You would have to be immensely proud of the effort by all the lads that took the field over the extended gameplay time, a massive effort, a real no quarter given or asked game, obviously in a one point defeat there will be a thousand reasons behind that, a long winter to diagnose it and tear it apart and look for reasons but at the end of the day Cratloe won and move on, we take it on the chin and that is the nature of it”.
A blistering start saw Ennistymon score 1-3 without reply in the first seven minutes, Joshua Vaughan hitting the net. “There is a narrative about this team that I think is unfair, they are an unbelievably capable group of guys who can mix it with the best teams in Clare, they know how to play attractive football and it is well within their capability, they took the momentum from the Lissycasey game into today and attacked from the off,” Downes stated.
This bright start came despite the North Clare side having a break of four weeks since their last championship outing. “Maybe a four week break is a bit too much I think, it is what it is, you’d like to spin from a game, two weeks is probably an ideal break to have but obviously you get more time, we’ve had bodies coming back as the year is going on, the depth and panel has been getting stronger as we’ve gone on during the year, it gave guys more time to get minutes on the field and sharpen their skillset”.
Kicking ten wides in the second half really hurt their cause, he acknowledged. “I can’t argue with that, the shots were on but we were shooting from a bit further out than we should have, maybe one more pass into a higher percentage scoring area but I backed the team to do that, I’m asking them to be brave and take on the shots, if you ask them to do that then you can’t criticise them afterwards. We’ve asked them to be brave and given them the mandate to go and take on scores”.
He added, “If you have ten wides in a period in Clare football that scoring efficiency is going to come against you at some stage in the game, with the experience Cratloe have the longer you leave them in the game they are very efficient, they go to the end and they will find a way, you nearly have to be ten points better than them to win by one, that turned out to be the case and a couple of marginal calls here and there went against us also, there is nothing you can do about it, a lick of paint lower and Cillian Rouine’s shot doesn’t come off the crossbar and it’s in the back of the net which would probably get us to the next round but best of luck to Cratloe, they deserve it on the day”.
Some contentious calls by referee Chris Maguire went against the North Clare Magpies but Downes was not pointing fingers. “We could stand here and make a thousand reasons for why things didn’t go our way today, we’ll sit down and look at it towards the end of next week, the game is gone and Cratloe are in the next round, they deserve it and that’s it”.
Reflecting on his first campaign with the club, the Kilmihil native said, “It has been an absolute pleasure to be involved with this group, they are a fantastic bunch, they’ve had serious trauma up there over the last year, not just within one family but across a number of families in the community up there but the way they have rallied and the effort they have given me has been thoroughly enjoyable, I’ve learned a lot from them, I’m just disappointed we didn’t get over the line and keep the journey going because I’ve enjoyed it that much that you want to be there with them”.
