*Peter Power battles with the Fitzpatricks, Páidí and Barry. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS’ exit from the Clare senior hurling championship is “hugely deflating,” manager James Carrig has said.
One win, one draw and one loss in Group 4 of the TUS Clare SHC was not enough for The Blues to progress to the knockout stages.
Indeed it is the first time since 2020 that Newmarket-on-Fergus will not be lining out in the quarter-finals, their fate was confirmed after drawing with Sixmilebridge despite having plenty of chances to overcome their neighbours.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, James Carrig said, “It’s hugely deflating for everyone involved. Look, we’ve put a lot of effort into this all year and you’re just hoping that things can go your way in tight games so to come so close is tough to take. I mean we led going into injury-time and even when they scored, we’d a chance to win it again and we just didn’t take it but that’s sport at the end of the day”.
A former manager of Wolfe Tones and Crusheen, he pointed to their opening quarter against Crusheen where they fell ten points down after twenty three minutes. “Over the course of the three games, we just misfired for 15 minutes against Crusheen and handed them a ten point lead, only to claw it back to one with a chance to level it as well so looking back on the group, we created enough chances, we just didn’t take them”.
He felt their draw against Sixmilebridge was their best display in the championship. “Without a doubt, this was our best performance of the three championship games and in fairness we threw the kitchen sink at the ‘Bridge which you have to give them great credit for holding us off and the way they performed.
“We had a few injuries coming into the game and that had an impact as well I felt. Look that’s not an excuse as everyone has injuries but throughout the three matches we didn’t have a full deck to play with but again that’s just the way things go sometimes. Look, we had to go for it and we did take risks at times as we tried to push up on them but overall the match could have really gone either way there for a finish but we needed to win and it just didn’t go our way”.
