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*St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield defender Killian McIlroy under pressure from Seanán Kirby of Corofin. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
ST JOSEPH’S Doora/Barefield claimed the last of the Clare SFC quarter-final places with an extra time win that will strengthen the character of the side.
County finalists in 2025, Doora/Barefield came within a whisker of exiting on Friday evening, they came from two points down with Joe Rafferty kicking a brace of points to force extra time where they managed to overcome Corofin 1-21 1-19.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, manager Donagh Vaughan underlined the importance of the win. “It was a huge game for us, I had said it would define our season, if we didn’t win we were out, it was a super match to build the character of the lads and they showed a lot of character, I’m really proud of them”.
There was belief within their camp that once the game entered extra time that the Parish would prevail. “We were five up at half time but in the modern game that lead is nothing, you have to steel yourself for the second half and weather the storm, Corofin have been very strong in all the games they played in the second half and we are well aware of that, we knew we’d have to weather a storm, the boys did and the last fifteen minutes after the lights went out was a funny event but we finished the game very strongly and we got the last two scores which were important. When we were facing into the first period of injury time we knew we had shown the dog in ourselves to get back into the game and came back from two down to get the draw so the boys really believed we could drive it home and we did”.
Friday’s encounter witnessed a rare occurrence of the floodlights in Clarecastle flicking off due to a trip switch. “No one can prepare for that, in one way it gave us the time to reset, it doesn’t always happen that you get a chance to reset but we took it,” remarked Vaughan.
Though they may have taken the scenic route to reach the knockout stages, Doora/Barefield are in a better place for their rematch of the county decider against Éire Óg. “The quarter-finalists would have been looking for challenge matches this weekend to keep things going with a three week gap whereas we got a super competitive match, the first real meaningful knockout game of the season and we’re lucky to come out of it and face into a quarter-final with this game under our belt”.
“We’re in the hat now, we’re looking forward to whoever we get, we’ve two more weeks to train hard, hopefully get one or two more bodies back, we’re nearly at full health so we can drive on and just go for it,” he added.
