TIME TO GIVE IT ALL WE’VE GOT
No more All-ireland regrets says Mckaigue
KARL MCKAIGUE and Slaughtneil are entering their fifth All-ireland club campaign tomorrow and he insists they have to make it count soon.
So far, their lot has been two defeats in hurling semi-finals and a pair of losses in football deciders.
The most recent setback was the hurling semi-final loss to Na Piarsaigh two weeks ago when they failed to capitalise on their opponents suffering two red cards early in the second half having led by three points at the break.
“One of the things we took, from last year, the All-ireland semi-final defeat by Cuala, we weren’t even really competitive,” dual star Mckaigue acknowledged.
“This year that was a big sort of hope that we were going to come down, going to give a good account of ourselves, try and be in the game and give ourselves a chance of winning.
“We obviously more than done that at half-time, we were up by three. I think we registered maybe 10 first half wides. That played on our mind a wee bit.
“We could have been up by maybe seven or eight at half time, to give us a good platform, but we ended up with three.
“Once they got the two men sent off, we didn’t know what we were doing. We lost our shape, our structure.
“We were caught in no man’s land and Na Piarsaigh probably upped it and pushed home well.”
The disappointment was softened by the fact that Mckaigue and Co had to quickly refocus for tomorrow’s football semi-final against Nemo Rangers.
In terms of their losses outside of Ulster in recent years, however, last year’s football final defeat to Dr Crokes, when Slaughtneil were reduced to 14 men after starting the game well, was the most harrowing.
“We were hit with that red card and next thing it comes crashing down. You are trying to keep things tight but you can’t influence the scoreboard at the other end.
“They went out and did what they had to do, they didn’t come out and blitz us in the second half with the extra man.
“They kept it very measured and calm and always had a spare man at the back and done enough to win the game.
“We kept things well at the back but we could never score enough to really trouble them.
“It was very disappointing; much more so than the All-ireland defeat of 2015 to Corofin. That day we weren’t competitive.
“You can’t really be too disappointed because you never really looked like winning it.
“But certainly that Dr Crokes game was there for the taking and very hard to take to this day.”
And Mckaigue says they can’t keep counting on opportunities to make up for it to come around.
He added: “You have to try and make the most of each chance you get, because last year we left it behind us a wee bit.”