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*Ennistymon centre-back, Cillian Rouine. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CONTINUING to play football “on the front-foot” and avoiding lull periods is the focus for Ennistymon as they look to record successive victories in the Clare SFC.
A 2-13 1-11 round one win over St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield has Ennistymon on the brink of a return to the knockout stages should they overcome Kilmihil in Doonbeg this Sunday.
Having trailed for the first twenty minutes of the first round, a twenty ninth minute Cillian Rouine gave Ennistymon the lead for the second time in the tie and they never relinquished their advantage from here until the final whistle, only extending the gap between the sides.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Ennistymon manager, Declan Downes outlined that the first championship outing has given them an idea on where they are. “Most teams find themselves in the situation going into the first round where they are not entirely sure where they are, you’re coming in off a big gap from league to championship and all you’re going off is challenge games and in-house work so it is hard to gauge where you are, all you’re trying to do is hammer home the principles of what your play is and see if you can get a performance on the day, we got that today”.
Within the first four minutes, Doora/Barefield were 0-4 0-0 ahead but Ennistymon finished the opening half with four of the final six scores to be 1-8 0-9 in front. “Doora/Barefield started very strong and we expected that, it was a tight breeze and they have some good kickers, you have inter-county kickers with Tom Curran and Tom McDonald, we stood off them a little bit and if you give them the opportunities they will take them, we got control again and settled into our task, we got a really well-worked goal, we had a few things to work on but were in a reasonable position”.
Both of Ennistymon’s goals showed how effective they are when running at teams, Cillian Rouine broke the lines before finishing to the net for their first goal while Gearoid Barry’s excellently taken finish stemmed from a Seán Rouine run. “There is no doubt about it and I’ll keep saying it we have players that can play on the front-foot, we’ve depth, guys came off the bench and had a big impact, we have guys trying to fight their way into the team which is all positive, it is great to see. We know how we want to play and we’re hoping we will get stronger each week and build as we go on”.
“Gearoid gave us a great impact, Joe Concannon had been going well in training and he is a great young fella with a big future ahead of him. Even though he is young, Gearoid has great experience to bring off the bench. Mark (Kelleher) was super today, making his proper championship debut, he got opportunities during the league when we were missing other players and all of a sudden you could see him stepping up to a starting role and grabbing it, he wasn’t shy in demanding the ball today and getting on it, we’ve lots of leaders around the field”.
Although they kept Doora/Barefield to 1-2 in the second half, Downes was frustrated with their return of seven wides in the second half, four which came in the third quarter. “We went through a period of the third quarter with three or four wides in a row, if you go through lulls like that you have to keep the scoreboard ticking, we were getting a good press on them in terms of the kickout which was giving us a foundation but we got sloppy at times, that was giving us a foundation, we have work to do because the goal that we conceded can’t happen, in a tighter game that could have been fatal for us, that lull period needs to be looked at, we’ve plenty to look and take lessons from to improve on”.
