This article is from page 99 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 99 JPG
BOTH entrances to the town were lined with signs of encouragement for the Gaels. ‘Beware of the girls from the Gaels’ was one such notice and as a sea of blue and white sup- port huddled in the main stand, the atmosphere was building towards eaCeCOh Ver. Caiconsoele
Unfortunately for the crowd, aside from a battling first fifteen minutes, the Gaels were always playing catch up and when they went 10 behind with less than twenty minutes to go, they could sense that it was not going to be another famous Gaels win.
The inexorable nature of the elec- tronic clock system gave the likely- hood of defeat a more definite time- line and as the seconds ticked away so did any hope of a recovery.
The goal they craved never came and the Dublin side held out for their first All-Ireland title.
As the wind and rain blew through
the ground after the game, the play- ers gathered around the centre of the field and after consoling his players, co-manager James Troy attempted to voice his obvious sadness.
“It was disappointing. We thought that we had played a good first half against the wind but things didn’t go right for us in the second half. The goal came at a bad time because we needed to get it at that stage.”
The murmurs of the crowd after the game were all about referee Eamonn McElroy and his handling of the game. At several stages throughout the match, the supporters chanted and sang of their displeasure to his bizarre decisions and manager Troy was equally as irritated about the Down offical.
“The ref didn’t help things at all. He made things very hard for the whole game and made a lot of stupid decisions. But we can’t be blaming the ref at the end of the day but we were just unlucky and things didn’t
O Our Way.”
This result aside, it has been a great run for the Clare side who won both Clare and Munster titles in style and Troy was quick to praise the efforts of the girls durling the year as well as the quality of the Foxrock/Cabint- eely side.
“They are a good team and they were handpassing well out of defence in the second half. They played well against the wind but we are proud of the girls because they had a great year. They deserved to be in the final anyway but it was just disappointing on the day. But they deserve great credit for the work they have put in all year.”