This article is from page 64 of the 2008-10-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 64 JPG
THEY stood together in Cusack Park and looked on. Kilmurry had it all. Another County title, a night of long celebration and a season that stretch- es into the provincial championships. Everything. Liscannor had tears, re- egret and the rain.
So they stood and watched. A group and a world of emotion away from the tightly packed circle of red and green jerseys, ever expanding on the muddied surface of Cusack Park.
They listened to Shane Hickey, Kil- murry Ibrickane’s winning captain, as he collected Jack Daly. Hickey spoke fiercely about the honesty and integrity of Liscannor football. It was a nice touch but Liscannor looked lost and utterly disconnected from the joy exploding around them.
They will know and reflect in the years to come that this was a game there for the taking. One kick. One lousy kick could have made all the difference as the gap between the teams, in an increasingly tense sec- ond half, narrowed.
Liscannor couldn’t find a way. Kil- murry did. Looking suddenly un- burdened, they rattled off three late points in the closing stages and the margin widened to double scores.
“That’s football’, said Liscannor manager Tommy Curtain at the end of Hickey’s speech and as the teams started to file towards the dressing room.
He added, “The final scoreline is not an indication of how the game went. We were in better scoring position than they were in on a cou- ple of occasions. There was there
when were on the left hand side of the square. So we had the chances. I think at one stage there, we had a wide and we were only two points down. Had we got the point we could have driven on”.
The knee injury suffered by Niall Considine in the 4th minute made tatters of Liscannor’s game plan. Considine had to come off and Cur- tain was forced to deploy one of his team’s most potent attacking threats, Alan Clohessy, to wing back, to cur- tail the influence of Stephen Molo- eae
The loss of Considine was a devas- tating one, according to Curtain.
“We were right in the game we fairly gave it our all. But the loss, I thought of Niall Considine, in the first few minutes was a telling factor. What happened was we had to de- ploy our wing forward to a wing back position and I think that took away a lot of the fire from our bellies. Even at that, we were well in the game. We
had some very good chances in front of goal and didn’t take them. But fair play to Kilmurry. We congratulate them. We were beaten by the better team”.
Curtain said Liscannor were ill equipped to absorb the loss of such an influential player.
“It’s ok for Kilmurry to lose a play- er but for us in Liscannor to lose a county player, especially when it was Niall, it was a huge loss to us. I feel if we had Niall we would have driven on and we’d probably have won the eee
Fireworks thrown from the stand fizzled out on the grass. Smoke drifted and the rain continued to fall. Curtain left with his players as the evening sky grew dark. The wait for Liscannor goes on.