Opening half blitz central
Knocknagree 2-13 Aghabullogue 1-6
KNOCKNAGREE are becoming an increasingly bigger voice in the County Intermediate Football Championship after shrugging off a disappointing Aghabullogue in a quarter-final at Banteer on Saturday.
By far the sharper side, the 2018 All-Ireland Junior champions got the job done in most convincing with a performance right out of the top drawer for 45 minutes. Enjoying a clear 2-13 to a 0-1 grip, the rest of the contest was purely academic yet Aghabullogue did muster up decent scores to put a degree of respectability on the board.
Aghabullogue could had little or none complaints surrounding their demise here, last season’s runners up to Cill na Martra just didn’t do themselves justice here on operating second fiddle when the contest should had been at it competitiveness best. Trailing by eighteen point grip, the closing twenty minutes were purely academic yet Aghabullogue did their best to plot a number of raids that earned scores to put respectability on the scoreboard.
At the end of the hour Knocknagree manager John Fintan Daly described the performance as “patchy” as he dampened expectations surrounding the label of favourites for the Co. IFC title after his charges blasted on ominous warning after recording a 10-point victory.
“The favourites tag is a whole lot of nonsense, Ireland were favourites against Japan in rugby, just twelve months ago they were fancied to win the World Cup. Its all a very fettle business, its about the next game, to date after four outings in this championship, we’ve yet to produce a 60-65 minute performance,” he said.
Maybe Knocknagree failed to score for the closing twenty minutes played against Aghabullogue but by the close of the third quarter, their odds on the championship had shortened considerably.
“We controlled the play during the opening half, look Aghabullogue are a dual club with a hurling championship coming up whereas we’re single minded and our football teams have played over 50 games this season,” said Daly.