Nally euphoric after Cille’s pulsating win
‘JUST euphoric, its unbelievable.’ That was St Colmcille’s manager Colm Nally’s initial response following his side’s pulsating victory at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh, on Sunday.
‘I think they scored 1-8 on the bounce, we had heard all about Pomeroy and now we saw what they could do. But I knew we would get a chance, we didn’t get a purple patch, we got a purple spot and out of that we scored 1-2 to win it, I can’t believe it.
‘We stuck to the game plan, we worked hard for the last four or five weeks, we knew what we had to do in terms of the middle eight. So we had to make a few adjustments and you could see that by the amount of space we created up front.
In the second half I suppose they abandoned their system and they came at us. They caused us trouble with their deep running and we flooded back into defence and coughed up a lot of scores.’
According to Nally the foundations were laid in the first half, at the end of which the Cille’s held a five-point advantage. That lead increased to eight shortly after half-time but Nally knew he was a long way from the winning post.
‘Despite being eight points clear at the start of the second half I didn’t think we had them, you will take it when you get it but it was too early,’ Nally continued. ‘You stay in the game in the first half but 15 minutes into the second half that is when you want your eight point lead.
‘We had to use all our subs again and we knew that, we had Eoin Woods going into the game carrying a knock and we knew we would get 40 minutes out of him. Cathal Hilliard the same, we wanted to get the first half out of him. Cathal would have a defensive side to his game and that is why he was there in the first half.
‘That is the game plan we have all the time, we have a starting team and we have a finishing team. We tried to time these substitutions to give us a spike and the lads all did that when they came on.
‘I knew it was going to be uncomfortable because we had everyone dropping back then and we had no shape whatsoever and we were hoarse shouting at them to get back up the field. It is hard to get that message out in such an emotional setting. When Pomeroy went three up maybe they abandoned their plan and let us back into the game.
‘It was no bother to Ben facing up to that kick for the winning point, he has been doing a lot of work in that area recently.
Regarding the availability of Meath captain Graham Reilly in the build up to the decider, Nally said he was prepared to compromise.
‘I spoke to Graham about this and I would like to have him for all of the preparations and I know he wants to play for Meath so we will have to meet halfway. It’s important that we have him for the preparations and we don’t want him to get injured but we will have to square it up with the senior management and Graham but I have no problem meeting him halfway. If I can get him once or twice a week I’ll be happy with that.’
For veteran centre back Ian Mullen the past number of months have been a dream come through after so many barren years with the club. The intermediate title, that was the main objective, but I suppose you always dream of playing in Croke Park and its going to be with your county, not your club. It is much better to play with your club in a final,’ Mullen said.
‘They were pretty strong favourites, they were a solid outfit. We had the confidence that if we kept to our game plan we would beat them. It was big plus to be five up at half-time and then to come out and get a goal so soon after half-time. We thought we were in cruise control. They showed how good they were by getting back into it and then going three points ahead. We showed great character to come back from that.’