A STACK TO BE PLEASED WITH
Boss Jerome takes the positives into final
St Brigid’s (Ros) 1-11 Castlehaven (Cor) 0-10 BY KEVIN EGAN
FOR 27 minutes St Brigid’s showed why they are full value for their return to Croke Park and a first All-ireland club final appearance for 11 years.
For the next 21 minutes, they showed exactly why they will be huge underdogs against Glen of Derry.
But manager Jerome Stack does not agree.
He said: “When we look back on the game there will no doubt be parts of it – particularly in the first half – we’ll be very happy with.
“There’ll be parts in the second half we’ll need to try and address, find the reasons why things played out like they did. It’s a good challenge to have, if we were beaten we wouldn’t have that challenge at all.
We’ve got there and we’ll be facing what is in most people’s eyes an impossible task but I don’t see it as anything like that.”
Certainly if St Brigid’s can use the open spaces of Croke Park and play the type of cohesive attacking football they produced in the early stages, they’ll provide plenty of headaches for Malachy O’rourke and his Ulster champions.
Every St Brigid’s shot in the first half was on target, Ben O’carroll linking up the play brilliantly and having a key role in setting up a goal for Brian Derwin.
Teenager Bobby Nugent stepped up to the mark with some lovely points, exploiting the space that was left open by Castlehaven’s focus on the threat posed by O’carroll. They moved 1-7 to 0-4 in front and looked like they might win well but, at the other end of the field,
Castlehaven’s attackers looked equally dangerous.
Brian Hurley caused Brian Stack untold problems, kicking three points from play and winning two more frees that he also converted.
St Brigid’s could – and should – have made the game safe after the interval.
Paul Mcgrath pounced on a sloppy handpass but fired high and wide and that led to repeated inaccuracy from the South Roscommon club.
Castlehaven cut the gap again and, had Rory Maguire kept his close-range effort on goal a foot lower, he would have hit net instead of wood and the Corkmen would have taken the lead.
Sub John Cunningham steadied St Brigid’s with a monster point, forcing Castlehaven to chase a goal.
That left them vulnerable to a fast break in stoppage time with Ben O’carroll chipping a penalty over the bar to seal their win.