Despite losing to Tir Na Nog today at Boucher Road the senior footballers put in probably their best display of the season. However the way we played in the first half it looked as if the game was over as a contest at half time. Trailing at half time 2-6 to 0-4 (Stephen Toner 0-1, Gerard Burns 0-1, Ryan Rooney 0-1,  Ciaran O’Riordan 0-1) and the body language of the players it appeared there was no way back into the game for us.
All credit to the players as they galvanised themselves from the start of the
second half and started to play more direct football to the forward line. We added five unanswered points as the Tir na Nog defense struggled to cope with the pressure they were coming under. Points from Ciaran O’Riordan, Anto McGrattan, Colm McAuley, Gerard Burns and Sean McGovern had reduced the margin to three before Tir na Nog tagged their first point of the half.
A fast flowing move and early delivery of the ball to Anto McGrattan gave him the opportunity to run at the Tir Na Nog backs, drop the shoulder and fire a left footed shot low into the right hand corner of the net and there was one between the teams. We then failed to take a few scoring chances to level the match before Tir Na Nog added two points to open the gap to three. Seamus McCleave then got on the score sheet a well taken point before Tir Na Nog were awarded a penalty with time running out.
The penalty was hit hard but struck the crossbar and in the melee that
ensued to gain possession Tir Na Nog pointed to get the goal cushion again. We battled hard in the final minutes but we were out on our feet from the exertion of our efforts and Tir Na Nog added two further points to leave them winners on a five point margin. Click here for photos of the game.
The positives to be taken away from this game are that we displayed the attributes and quality that we know that we have in the team. If we can continue to display this type of effort and improve our consistency it will surely be a matter of time before we start picking up points.
