This article is from page 108 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 108 JPG
STEPHEN Cunningham cut a com- posed figure for much of this county semi-final — standing on the sideline there wasn’t much motion out of him, even if he must have been put through the whole gamut of emotions over the OB eeb telecon
There was nothing to worry about in the early exchanges because Crush- een were the better team, old hands at county semi-finals these days and when they led by 0-5 to O-1 as half- time closed in, Cunningham possibly reflected on a job being well done.
Then it all changed — the pen- alty could have put Crusheen out of reach, but when it was missed and Clonlara tacked on two points before half-time it was as if Cunningham and company sensed that the black and amber tide was growing.
“The reality is,” said Cunningham afterwards, “that when you get ahead like that in a championship game as we were in the first half and you don’t punish them, you suffer. That’s what happened us and when we didn’t go further ahead at half-time Clonlara were always going to come back at Saas
And when they started coming, Cunningham was powerless to do anything about it, save throw in substitutes to try and change things around and also hope that Clonlara’s high tide ran its course.
Didn’t look like happening though.
Crusheen slipped behind when Conlon goaled, then as the minutes passed, the differential started to grow as wide as five points. By the last ten minutes Cunningham would have been forgiven if he thought that after five wins in-a-row, Crusheen’s
season was crashing in around them.
He was still composed though, and gradually as the comeback started he became more animated. And when Paddy Meaney crashed home the goal that put Crusheen ahead for the first time in 28 minutes, he raced on
to the field punching the air. Whatever his counterpart, the ani- mated Jimmy Gully can do, Cun- ningham can also do. “Credit our lads,” he said drawing breath. “They dug back in there and got the goal and got a draw when with a few minutes
it looked as if they were gone. With a few minutes left we would have set- tled for this. Clonlara are a fine out- fit, they’re on a serious roll and are very unlucky not to have come out of here with a win. We have another day out got, that’s the way we’re looking at it,” he added.
Then it was time to draw more breath and reflect some more on a tumultuous few minutes. “Things revisit you at times,’ said Cunning- ham in reference to Paddy Meaney’s missed chance in the 55th minute when he kicked the ball inches wide of Ger O’Connell’s right hand post from a distance of no more than sev- SIUM L TROLS
“But this time we had the time to come again and get another chance at goal. That famous day against Tulla we got a chance, but after we didn’t take it we didn’t have the time to come again. It means we have an- other chance. We’re still in it. I keep saying it, but the fact we’re in it is great. We’re not gone.”
With that Cunningham was gone — back to the dressing room to be with his players. Talk them through it, steel them for another day, start preparing for that day.
It could have been very different.