*Aaron Fitzgerald leads Éire Óg from defence. Photograph: Mike Brennan
ÉIRE Óg captain Aaron Fitzgerald was among the players to lead the way as the Clare champions recovered from a sluggish opening half on Sunday to seal their place in the semi-finals of the Munster club championship.
Trailing by two points at half time, having only kicked two scores, Éire Óg came to life when Ikem Ugwueru scored an excellent goal on thirty five minutes, the Clare defender also popped up with the assist for Ciaran Russell’s major on forty five minutes as they went on to record a five point victory.
At full-back, captain Fitzgerald was among their most consistent players throughout the hour and successfully broke out of defence on several occasions to try kickstart moves for Éire Óg. “As you’re pushing on in life you can only go so far, I was only getting to midfield and letting the boys do their thing,” he quipped.
Tough battles are to be expected in the province, the former Clare footballer and hurler pointed out. “In the Munster competitions you are playing against champions so it is obviously going to be a bit of a step up, we might have been a bit nervy, conditions were a bit greasy but a few words were said at half time and it was a bit of a wake-up call for a few lads. You saw what Ikem did in the second half, he is just unbelievable, we’re happy to get a result because that is all you need to do at this stage in the competition”.
As captain it is no surprise that he was among the more vocal figures in the dressing room of Cusack Park at half time. “You kind of have to, it comes with the armband, we got down to a couple of issues we had, we righted a few of them but we definitely have some work to do. To be back training on Tuesday is great, that is what we wanted to do and that is what we did,” he told The Clare Echo.
Reflecting on their poor opening half, Aaron believed that the Ennis side were more sluggish than they should have been. “When you’re in the heat of the moment it nearly felt like we were panting more than we should have been, I don’t know because we had loads of rest but I’d say we were a bit asleep to be honest, we sorted it out at half time thank God”.
He was very pleased that the strength of Éire Óg’s panel was evident once more with Peadar O’Keeffe making his first appearance of the championship when sprung into action for the injured Shane Daniels. “You want your strongest team going out but we have a massive panel there, I’m delighted to see some of the lads get a chance, some lads that didn’t get a game all year came on in a Munster club competition which is just unbelievable”.
Playing in Cusack Park is worth a couple of scores for the Townies, he felt and every advantage will be used when they welcome Tipperary champions Loughmore-Castleiney to Ennis in a fortnight’s time. “It is great to have home advantage, maybe it is worth a couple of points and I think it definitely was here today. We’ll go back, reassess and go again”.
