*Jack Hannan has slotted back into the St Josephs Doora/Barefield side after missing the first round. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
St Josephs Doora/Barefield have a bounce in their stride having qualified for the quarter-finals of the Clare SFC.
By Gerry Quinn
Reigning intermediate champions, Doora/Barefield sealed their place in the knockout stages following group wins over Kilmihil and Kilrush Shamrocks.
Donagh Vaughan of The Parish’s management team told The Clare Echo that their month long wait for the quarter-final fixture will be utilised wisely. “Now we have a lot of dual players. There’s a lot of hurling to be played and then there’s football. But we have a month. We’ll keep working away. We have a lot of stuff to improve on. But overall we’re happy and we’ll have a lash at anyone. We’ll be there on the day”.
Reflecting on their comprehensive sixteen point win over Kilrush Shamrocks, Vaughan stated, “It was a day that we came to the office and everything went right for us. But we caught a few injuries so if there’s any negatives, we just hope our boys will recover but overall we’re delighted. It was a super performance and we were accused of starting games slowly last year but we focused well and we got going straight away”.
“I think all our starting forwards scored and then our corner- back got up and got a few points. But that’s modern football – everyone has to move forward. You often have backs getting scores in the game and if we want to get to a serious level we have to be the same as every other club. We are working on that. It’s happening, thank God but there’s bigger challenges ahead,” Donagh added.
Youth is not holding back their players, he felt. “They are young and they are eager. They’re learning but they like to move the ball quick. Yeah, we are just working on that the whole time. It’s a learning process –they are very young but they’re super lads and they are fine footballers”.
