*Donagh Vaughan leads the celebrations for Doora/Barefield. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
BEING crowned under 21 A Clare football champions was a great way to finish the year according to St. Josephs manager Donagh Vaughan.
Speaking after his charged had recorded a one point win over Lissycasey in Saturday’s final which required extra time at Clareabbey he said “it’s a great breakthrough a great way to finish a long tough year”.
“A lot of these boys have played senior this year, no more than Lissycasey as seven or eight from both teams played senior. Both didn’t win in the senior so it was important to keep it going and when you are developing younger players this is a brilliant competition. This was a great game of football considering the time of year, it was a super match and there was nothing between the teams”, he said.
Continuing the winners manager said “the wind was a huge factor in the first half, Lissycasey had a five point lead but we got it back to a draw. In the first period of extra time when we had the wind, Lissycasey were superb, they held the ball well and they kept us to one point. It was really up to us to hold on in that second period, keep ball and keep ball, We got one more score and we hung on and that was what it’s all about”.
Looking to the future he said “We have 35 on our panel and I can’t say enough about these young lads that came up from minor. They got a bit of a drubbing from Lissycasey in the minor fina,l a lot of them joined us and we had to get them going. Hopefully the future is good for Doora-Barefield football. We have a great bunch of lads and we just have to get them through now. We will enjoy tonight, the boys have a hurling semi-final next week, we will get a week or two off and we will think about next year then”, he concluded
