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*Kevin McInerney battles with Darren O’Neill. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
DOONBEG ARE bracing themselves for “a massive battle” as they bid to take down county champions Éire Óg in order to keep their season alive.
With one defeat and one draw from their two outings in the TUS Clare senior football championship, Doonbeg are in need of a win to leave the loser of the St Joseph’s Miltown versus Clondegad tie in a relegation battle, should Clondegad prevail whoever joins Éire Óg in the knockout stages will be decided on scoring difference.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Doonbeg manager John Keane outlined, “sport is about a challenge and it is about the next challenge, what better challenge than the county champions, we’re going up against the best in the county now and that is what we’re facing, I’ve no doubt that we will be ready for it”.
A strong cohort of Keane’s side have experience of defying the odds to defeat Éire Óg following their 2019 Clare SFC quarter-final win over the Ennis side in Hennessy Memorial Park in Miltown Malbay.
Keane recalled, “It was a massive game at the time, Éire Óg are a fine team and are going for three in a row, they have serious quality right throughout the team, it will be a huge challenge but that is what is in front of us and we have to face it”.
Reflecting on their second round draw with Clondegad, John stated that they were “delighted” to salvage a point from the outing. “It was a tough battle, we knew it was going to be a tough battle and we spoke about it during the week, we spoke about the importance of bringing the battle to Clondegad and we felt we didn’t do it enough in the first half. I think half time came at the right time for us, we regrouped and spoke about a few things, we really went after the game in the second half, it was a savage battle”.
Conceding two first half goals proved to be a hindrance in them walking away from Cooraclare with their first win of the championship, he acknowledged. “The two goals were key, definitely the second one. Goals are huge scores in games like that were the game is a real battle, a goal is a huge score, we made a lot of mistakes in the first half that we weren’t happy with but we didn’t go after the game enough either, thankfully in the second half we did”.
“We felt that if we were to beat Clondegad that we had to score goals, the goal was a huge score but we could have tagged on some more scores after it, when the game is that tight it is swings and roundabouts, to be fair to Clondegad they missed a lot too and we have to acknowledge that they missed a good few frees so all in all a draw is a fair result”.
Éire Óg boss, Paul Madden was pleased to welcome Clare corner back Ronan Lanigan who made his first appearance of the championship off the bench in their second round win over St Joseph’s Miltown. “Ronan is an outstanding player, he was in the States and played a game last Sunday, he arrived back and the lads that played round one were in good fettle so Ronan understood that, he came on and it was great to have him back”.
His return was a plus but losing both Mark McInerney and Éinne O’Connor to injury marred the win. “Mark’s is a niggly one that maybe in hindsight we shouldn’t have put him in today but he felt good during the week, we’ll have to monitor that one but Éinne O’Connor’s looks a bit more serious”.
