*St Breckans’ senior squad. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
WITH A RISING injury list, St Breckans put a strong focus on securing the reward of a four-week break by advancing directly to the Clare SFC quarter-finals.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SFC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel.
St Breckans clawed their way back from five points down with fifty seven minutes played in the third round of the TUS Clare SFC to draw with St Joseph’s Miltown and seal second spot in Group 2 meaning a direct route to the last eight as opposed to lining out in the preliminary quarter-final.
How they battled back with Jamie Stack landing a brace of two pointers plus a Colm O’Brien equaliser demonstrated a type of spirit which Patrick O’Neill and his management have been well aware is within the St Breckans squad. “Coming into the last six or seven minutes it didn’t look great when we were five or six points down, the changes helped us a lot and the lads never gave up which is all we ask for, it wasn’t a performance to put us out of the championship but it is all about the fight, we’re delighted with what happened”.
As they prepare for the last eight, the North Clare have a lot to improve on, O’Neill stressed. “We’re obviously happy to get to the quarter-final but we can’t be happy with the overall performance and we definitely aren’t happy with that, we dug deep and got the result in the end, I counted ten turnovers in the first twenty minutes of the second half, if you’re doing that then you’re not winning games especially knockout games, that needs to be changed, we’re relieved more than happy because the performance wasn’t there but we’re relieved to be through”.
He continued, “It is clear as day, everyone can see it up in the stands the turnovers cost us, when you’re running down the middle against a Miltown team which has Gordon Kelly there he will stop you and turn you over, that happens”.
Managing to force a draw with St Joseph’s Miltown gifted a one-month block to prepare for the knockout stages. “The four-week break is what we were actually talking about after the second round against Kilmurry Ibrickane, you want the four weeks to structure yourself for knockout football, this is all about getting through to the next phase, the next day is the big day”.
Injuries are beginning to mount within their squad, full-back Conor Burke (knee) joins his younger brother Cian (ankle) on the treatment table. “We’ve quite a few lost at this stage and another blow with Conor Burke who is an exceptional full-back, hopefully we’ll assess and have a chat with him and see what way he is but it doesn’t look good”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the Breckans boss outlined they placed no emphasis on scoring difference prior to the Miltown match. “On the end line we didn’t know what the scoring difference was because we weren’t concentrating on it, it wasn’t coming into my thoughts before this game on what would happen if it was a draw, I just wanted a performance, when you have the cushion of the third placed team going to a play-off then it’s all about a performance in the group stages and if you can build on the performance then”.
