*Joey Rouine of Ennistymon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ENNISTYMON “won’t be afraid of anyone” when it comes to Tuesday evening’s quarter-final draw.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SFC is in association with The Shannon Springs Hotel.
An opening round win over Doonbeg, a second round shock loss to Kilmihil and a spirited third round drawing with Lissycasey was enough for Ennistymon to get their name in the hat for the quarter-final draw which takes place on Tuesday evening.
Their potential opponents are the three most-recent champions, Éire Óg, Cratloe and Kilmurry Ibrickane.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Ennistymon manager Declan Downes outlined that there is a strong belief within their camp that they can match anyone in the county. “We wanted to be in knockout football, you want to be competing with the best in Clare, we feel on our day we can start causing problems for any of the teams and we won’t be afraid of anyone, we’re looking forward to matching up against whoever we get”.
Joshua Vaughan made a welcome return to their team, playing a big role in the second half as they forced a draw with Lissycasey. The interval between round three and the quarter-finals will see the North Clare side welcome back more players as the long-list of injuries that hampered them before a ball was kicked in the championship is reduced.
Ex Clare selector Downes stated, “There is a lot of people knocking on the door now, we started the group stages short a few bodies but I was happy with what we had and the processes we were putting in place. Josh had a massive impact on the game but it would be wrong to single him out because there was huge performances all over the field right across the board from stuff that goes unseen to just breaking ball and winning the breaks on the ground, making the space for others to go and play and do what they are good at, there is a lot of unsung heroes away from the limelight that deserve praise but Josh was very good”.
Looking back on their draw with Lissycasey which saw them squander a five point advantage by conceding three goals in less than three minutes only to rescue a draw with three Cillian Rouine scores in succession including two pointers, Downes said it was indicative of the character within the dressing room. “If you could be dispassionate and sit back to enjoy the game it was a rip-roaring contest, it ebbed and flowed, momentum was a big thing in the game and who had it at a particular stage in time, we managed to get on top of their kickout for a period in the second half which really gave us the platform to go play the football that these guys are well capable of, credit to Lissycasey who came back and got their three goals. I said from the start of the year that there is unbelievable character in this Ennistymon group, they’ve been through traumas but they have weathered those, I wasn’t surprised we fought our way back into the game to get the result that we needed”.
On the concession of three goals in 111 seconds in the final final six minutes of normal time, the manager said, “That can happen, if a team gets a run on you in the middle of the field, it opens up very quickly in front of you then and it does free up with a lot of space to attack, they have quality, they went for the jugular and got their goals, you have inter-county seniors and inter-county U20s in their attack so if they get a sniff of a chance they are going to punish you and cause problems for a lot of teams”.
Back on September 4th 2022, Mark Shanahan was in charge of Ennistymon and at half-time in their third round tie the placings had them in the relegation but they ended up topping the group. It was a similar occurrence three years on, this time with Lissycasey as the opponents and the final placing seeing them in second of the group. “Coming into this game what had gone before was irrelevant we were still coming in knowing that if we won that we were through and as it turned out a draw would get us through anyway, the game was a stand-alone game and we looked at it as just that, a contest that we needed a result out of, we weren’t talking about looking down, we were looking up and looking forward to getting through to knockout football”.
