*Gavin Murray holds off James Curran. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ÉIRE ÓG will bid to reach a third Clare SFC final in as many years when they face off with Cratloe in Sunday’s semi-final.
In what is a repeat of the 2014 decider, Éire Óg once again put their bid as county champions on the line when they come up against the Colm Collins managed Cratloe.
Matters seemed to be plain sailing in the group for the Ennis club with comfortable wins over Clondegad, St Joseph’s Miltown and Doonbeg. It was a bit more complicated than expected to get over the quarter-final hurdle with St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield forcing extra time.
Honesty and hard work were credited by Éire Óg manager, Paul Madden for surviving that scare. “We are happy that we are in a semi-final. The one thing about these guys is that they will give you everything they have. What we had at times today in terms of football quality at time was poor but I’m sure there were a lot of teams willing us to lose but the lads in fairness to them they dug it out and they had to because no matter what you were saying on the sideline it was frantic. We got a couple of turnovers in the second period of extra time and we got a nice breakaway score. That’s the foundation of our group, the hard work and the honesty and they gave us that. While there wasn’t a lot of quality play, there was a lot of honesty”.
Madden was insistent they had to plenty to work on if they were to retain the title. “We felt at the end of normal time that they (St. Joseph’s) were the happier team going in and they were kind of half celebrating. There were no heads down, no shouting and roaring, there was a very clear focus. We were level going into the game and we were level with twenty more minutes to play. We have loads to work on”.
He could feel a growing tide of support against them as they game was brought to extra time. “You always want your leaders and they have to be the guys who will put the shoulder to the wheel when the chips are down and with the honesty and the hard work shown today, you couldn’t be prouder of the lads. During the week everyone was talking us up and everyone bar our dressing room were hoping we were going to lose for a finish today and we didn’t. We are certainly still in the championship”.
St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield boss, Donagh Vaughan described their campaign as “a coming of age”. He stated, “Ourselves and Éire Óg is always a derby game. We felt this year was a coming of age for our team. We met all the quality teams Corofin, Kilmurry Ibrickane and St. Breckan’s. Last day against Kilmurry we felt we were starting to boil a bit. Today I am so so proud of the boys. We were unlucky not to win or at least get it to a penalty shootout, nothing but pride in these guys, they left it all out there. The future is bright but we have to keep this group of boys together.
“It’s out third year in senior and this year the lads understand what it takes to achieve at this level. We have a better knowledge now of the intensity required and this will definitely stand to our boys if we can keep the group together. I think the future is great. We stuck to a good defensive system and we stayed at it. We remained patient. In the first half we couldn’t get to grips with the Éire Óg kickout. We went in long in the second half and we started to get rewards from that and all of a sudden we had plenty of possession and the goal came, thank God”.
