*Doonbeg danger man, Darragh Burns. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
DOONBEG showed their battling qualities are as strong as ever but lacked fresh legs to make a difference in their first outing of the 2024 Clare SFC.
Having held a six point advantage over Ennistymon, Doonbeg failed to score for the entire duration of the second half as they lost out in their first round tie two weeks ago.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Doonbeg manager John Keane admitted, “The initial feeling is one of disappointment. We were in a good position at half time but standing out here in the pitch there is a strong breeze there and it caused us problems, we had chances in the second half against that strong wind which we didn’t take and that was the difference”.
Playing against the breeze in the second half, while Ennistymon yielded a return of 0-2 in the first half. “It’s quite strong, we got in there a couple of times and we got shots but there was a couple where the wind held up, it was a difficult breeze to play against. Going back to the first half we should have been a bit more ahead at half time but unfortunately it wasn’t to be and we’re disappointed,” he stated.
Darragh Burns was the standout player in the game with 0-4 to his name. When he was hit with a constant supply of ball in the opening half, they dominated versus Ennistymon but the amount of ball hit his direction dried up and so did their challenge. “We couldn’t get that ball in, we’re going back to the wind again but we couldn’t get the ball into him and Ennistymon were well set up, we needed to move the ball a bit faster in the second half but we didn’t. We have to regroup and go again”.
When asked if the loss came down to an absence of fresh legs, Keane responded, “Maybe there was a bit in that too. They seemed to have more options off the bench than we had and against that wind the lads had worked extremely hard so maybe that might have been a small factor in it”.
“They battled all the way till the end, it was unfortunate that with those chances we missed that we would have been there right at the very end but that is championship football and that is the way it goes, we have to regroup and go again the next day for Miltown”.
