*Eoghan Boyle. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ST JOSEPH’S DOORA/BAREFIELD’s footballers are showing maturity and they are now on the cusp of topping Group 2 in the Clare SFC.
Back to back wins over St Breckan’s and Corofin have Doora/Barefield sitting top of Group 2 and a win over Kildysart on Sunday would guarantee a place in the quarter-finals for the second year in a row.
“Every game is there to be won, we go out to win every game, we have our second win in a row here,” St Joseph’s manager Donagh Vaughan commented following their two point victory against Corofin.
There is still plenty for his side to work on, Donagh maintained. “We wouldn’t have been happy with a lot of our aspects to the game, we’ll need massive improvements all over the field, Corofin were fighting for their life, we built up a good score of 1-10 in the first half, there was a big wind factor there, we knew we had seven points of a lead and that they would come at us, we kicked on a few points and we got over the line, that was the type of game it turned out to be. Corofin are a team we’ve great respect for, they were fighting for their lives”.
These aspects jumping out in his view included, “Our overall workrate, we dropped off and allowed Corofin to get forward a bit easier in the second half, our press needs to be better. Some of the stuff we’ve worked on we executed well and other aspects we didn’t”.
He continued, “It’s great to get two wins together, we’re very happy to get over the line but probably not happy with our performance overall but fair dues to Corofin because they brought everything as they always do, they are well used to, they brought everything they could”.
Strong foundations were laid in the opening quarter for The Parish , they had racked up 1-4 by the eighth minute and had kept Corofin to a single point. “Our first ten minutes were excellent, we had 1-5 and we were scoring, then the second ten minutes of the first half was not where we wanted to be at all, the boys showed a good bit of maturity and there was a good spread of scorers, Darragh O’Shea came through from midfield to kick two very important points and all of a sudden we chipped on five more points so 1-10 was a good score at half time but we needed everyone of them the way the game transpired”.
Clare senior panellist James Curran has yet to start in this year’s championship for Doora/Barefield. A groin injury has restricted his appearances to those from the bench but Vaughan is optimistic that the midfielder is moving in the right direction. “James will hopefully continue to get better, he is carrying a bit of a groin injury, we’re working on it the whole time and with the help of God he will be back to full health before we know it”.
A place in the knockout stages more or less awaits Doora/Barefield but a defeat to Kildysart could see them navigate an unlikely route via a preliminary quarter-final. “It’s hard to know. We’ve Kildysart, they were turned over by St Breckan’s in round two so they now have two points too, they’ve Corofin in their last game and it’s still wide open to know what position any team fills. For us, it’s all about Kildysart”.
With their focus on Kildysart, Donagh was a spectator in Gurteen for their second round clash with St Breckan’s. “Breckan’s scored four goals and got massive scores, it was a good game and I thought Breckan’s were the better team, they played to their strengths and got their runners through, ultimately they scored four goals and it is very hard to come back from conceding four goals”.
