Shinrone manager not surprised by his side's second half fightback

SHINRONE manager Mark Morkan was extremely proud of his side's second half fightback in Sunday's county final when they cut an 11 point lead to just one at one stage but said he wasn't surprised by it as he knew the resilience in the players and that they wouldn't just die.

He said in the aftermath of the game that his immediate feelings were “a bit of everything, a bit of heartbreak, disappointment. It's a tough one to take. We probably left ourselves too much to do at half time. Still having said that, we created enough opportunities probably to go on and win it. Kilcormac/Killoughey showed a bit of class there near the end to see it out.”

Shnrone had started the game well and midway through the first half there was only a point in it, 0-6 to 0-2, but suddenly Kilcormac/killoughey pulled clear and were 10 points up at half time, 0-17 to 0-7.

“Yeah, it was the second quarter, I suppose. We were happy enough with it up to that. I remember going up the line there and it was 6-4 at one stage and I said I was happy enough with it. But just the second 15 of the first half, that's what really caused the problem. I don't know why it was, but we looked at it at half time and we just said, we were in this position before and we just have to go for it you know and we did and probably created enough chances but we probably just didn't take them in the end.

“We got back to a point and I think we hit the crossbar and we got pulled for an over carry there that I thought was a bit harsh as well that would have drawn the game as well, you know it was an important decision which we were a bit disappointed about but we'll have no complaints,” the manager said.

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He agreed that he was proud of the way they fought back in the second half and really made a game of it. “Oh you'd have to be, I knew that. I knew the boys wouldn't just die off.'”

He said someone else had mentioned to him that there were fears among some that it could be a 20 point game at half time “but I knew that wasn't going to be the case. I knew, especially the bench we have as well. I knew the boys would make a huge impact when they came in as well and they did. We knew that. We knew they'd make a huge impact,” Mark said.

“The boys fought to the bitter end and I knew they would, that's the characters they are and the attitude they have, they'll never give up.”

In the end Kilcormac/Killoughey's experience of being in county and Leinster finals probably stood to them. “Yeah they showed a bit of experience there at the end yes. Won a couple of vital scores and frees there at times yes so they showed a bit of experience.”

This was Mark's first year in charge of his home club and clearly they have a lot of build on. “There's a few young lads here and most of those lads will still be around for a couple of years. We speak about it before games, you could actually bring in eight or nine subs there no problem at all, that's the depth we have in our panel. That's only going to make it better and better and a lot of them are young lads and as long as they stay consistent with their training and keep the standards up, we'll be in a good place,” he added.

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