Relief forEoghan Rua boss after dour draw

That was Eoghan Rua’s manager Sean McGoldrick commenting immediately after his side had battled out a dour championship semi-final draw with Ballinascreen at wet and windy Owenbeg last Sunday night. “Conditions were very difficult out there,” he said. “I suppose we both had chances to win it late on. That free at the end, I would have put my house on Ciaran (McGoldrick’s his son) putting it over.”

The sides were locked at 0-6 each with less than three minutes on the clock when Eoghan Rua had that chance from a free around 35m out. Ballinascreen then had their opportunity to steal victory, albeit from much further out the field, but Danny Devlin’s effort was well short.

“We cannot complain,” said McGoldrick. “We didn’t’ play well, but I suppose to be fair you can only play as well as you’re let, so Ballinascreen have to take credit for that.

“I thought to be fair to them they probably tried to push us a wee bit; they did come out a bit more than the last time but some of our fellas looked a bit lackadaisical and were not as sharp as I’d have hoped they might have been. That is something that we will have to look at for the next game. I thought that they were up for the game more than we were, especially in the first half when we were doing well to be hanging in there. We did have a couple of chances, we hit the upright and Ciaran (McGoldrick) had the chance for a goal. At least he should have hit the target.”

After Eoghan Rua had missed their late free McGoldrick was asked about Ballinascreen’s last ditch chance from a long range free. ‘I did not think that he was going to score, he was probably too far out and conditions were so difficult for ‘dead ball’ kicking, it was very slippery underfoot. We had opportunities that we did not take but I’m sure Ballinascreen will probably say the same. We have to have a look at our forwards and see where we can get a bit more product from them. You play as well as you’re let however and they are very strong at the back with the likes of Dermot McBride, he is a very strong footballer, a very good footballer. But look we are happy to be still in the championship’.