McGinley rues first-half non-show by Errigal on Sunday

ASKED if he took solace from the manner of Errigal Ciaran’s attempted second-half comeback in Sunday’s heart-wrenching All-Ireland Final defeat to Cuala, manager Enda McGinley’s answer was an unequivocal ‘yes’.

The stats tell their own story. Errigal Ciaran trailed by 0-1 to 3-6 with 25 minutes on the clock. The nightmare scenario of all nightmare scenarios.

To rub salt in the wound, their captain fantastic Darragh Canavan had to come off with injury minutes prior after bearing the brunt of a forceful challenge. To put it simply, it looked like Errigal’s race was already run – the deficit was simply too much to overcome.

That they somehow managed to not only make a game of it, but come close to pulling off one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed in the history of our great association, is nothing short of remarkable.

Spearheaded by an inspired Peter Harte the Errigal Ciaran men summoned the courage to play their way back into proceedings and with 57 minutes elapsed, they trailed by only three single points.

Their Lazarus act didn’t quite come to fruition when all was said and done, but even to be in the conversation at the final whistle was a testament to a truly remarkable effort in the second-half.

Speaking after the game, a disappointed but proud manager Enda McGinley said he took ‘massive’ solace from their courageous second-half display.

“Massive, massive. We all know we’re all football people here. Them type of first halves can happen. They’ll happen to any team. It’s just part of sport sometimes and it happens to much bigger teams and professional teams than us.

“And then you’re in a very difficult place and it’s up to you to respond and you’ve two ways out. The boys went at it and just went at it and went at it and went at it and made a game of it.

“So, to their absolute eternal credit, that second half is definitely solace. It’ll not make the first half any easier to stomach, but I’ll absolutely tell them to walk away with their heads held high.”

McGinley explained that there was an ‘acceptance’ that the first-half had been nothing short of a disaster, but they were cool enough in their thinking to know that they had massively underperformed. That informed their decision to go out and give it absolutely after the break.

“There was an acceptance that it was a disaster of a first half, that the team froze, but there was a reality check that Cuala are good, but they’re not that much better than us and we’re not that bad.

“So, whatever was going on in the first half, it was not because we were playing against a team that was 10 levels too much for us. So, that meant it was on us to settle ourselves and just go.

“It’s been a long year. They’ve played some fantastic football, got themselves out of tight corners, repeatedly showing huge character, repeatedly showing good quality and this was the last 30 minutes of the year.

“After all they’ve been through, they owed it to themselves to give the final 30 minutes and if you’re going to die, you die with your boots on and they’ve done that.”

Enda McGinley believes a number of factors fed into their underperformance in the fist-half, including the difficulty of keeping things on an even keel after the euphoria of their All-Ireland semi-final win over Dr Crokes just a week ago.

It was their first ever win at that national level and came after a remarkable game of football in Newbridge which went to extra-time, and McGinley drew a contrast with Cuala’s muted celebrations following their own All-Ireland semi-final win on the same day.

“I suppose the biggest thing is just that first half and why we were like that,” said McGinley. “I suppose that’s going to be the biggest thinking point.

”I noticed at the end of the Cuala semi-final, when the final whistle went they just shook hands and walked off and shook hands with each other. It was like ‘good job right away we go.

“It was remarkably calm. Ours was a bit different down in Newbridge. It was a massive emotional high. It was the biggest high our club probably has ever experienced. That’s particularly difficult to get down from. Then we had to get the bodies recovered from the extra time, the boys were still really tired and sore.

“There were a couple of them still struggling coming in today. Big Joe Oguz had the flu as well so you have all of those things to manage on top of the emotional high.”

McGinley also updated the press on injuryies sustained by Darragh and Ruairi Canavan. Darragh had to leave the field early while Ruairi also sustained a heavy knock late in proceedings.

“They’re both going to head to hospital now for further checks and whatnot.Darragh obviously came off, he was groggy and it was not right whenever he went out. He just took a knee unfortunately, I think it was, to the head.
“It happened close enough to me.

“So, when I went out to him I knew it was probably serious enough and you just can’t take risks with that.
“So, that was that and then Ruairi as well unfortunately – I didn’t realise at the time, but he was the first player I went to after the match and he was well out of it now.

“And then on reflection in the last 5-10 minutes, I’m not sure where his hit came, but unfortunately he’s well dazed.
“So please God they’ll come round, I’m sure they will.”