No nerves as winners play it cool
WHEN Stephen Morgan was asked to take the reins at Curraha at the beginning of the year, he was reluctant at first. Second in command to John O’Brien for the previous two seasons, he was eventually persuaded to take charge following O’Brien’s departure.
Morgan, who served Curraha as a player through some very lean years, brought former Duleek player Michael Johnson in alongside him and the combination helped Curraha reach the Holy Grail for the very first time following Sunday’s IFC Final success over St Michael’s.
Speaking after the final whistle, he said: ‘It’s my first year as manager. I worked alongside John O’Brien for two years, I played under the likes of Brian Stafford who was manager here some years back, and you pick up things along the way. And look, all the little pieces make the jigsaw.
‘You can talk about the emotion after the game, it’s not for us before that. The two weeks leading up to this was for the parish and everyone else, it wasn’t for us. We had a job to do and we focused on that.
‘We closed out midfield. They have a sharp inside forward line, they get direct ball in. We watched them a few times and we thought we’d be 30 or 40% there if we bottled up that area and stopped the long ball going in.
‘In fairness to our middle eight players, they absolutely did trojan work out there, they’re a credit to themselves and the club the way they played - their fitness, their tackles, their turnovers. They were superb.
‘James (McEntee) ended up in that middle area, James likes it where the action is and that’s where you get the best out of him. He had a phenomenal performance today, probably close to man of the match. Sean O’Hanrahan also had an excellent game.
‘I was just in talking to the chairman and if you start naming the players who played well you’d go close to the 15 lads who started, to be honest. They all did a super job, they clicked on the big stage and that’s where you need to click.’
Though this is mainly a very young Curraha outfit they showed little sign of nerves throughout and their calmness in possession proved a major factor.
‘They weren’t nervous. We said it’s just another game,’ Morgan continued. ‘They’re young and all they want to do is play football, that’s all they want to do.
‘There’s no point complicating it. Yes, there’s tactics and we have a system of play, but there’s no point banging tables and getting emotional about it.
‘They just want to play football and it was just another game and that’s the way we treated it. Strip all the rest of it back and it’s just you and St Michael’s on a pitch and that’s the way we went about it this week.’
Morgan admitted that St Michael’s missed penalty in the opening half was a turning point.
‘It was the same in the semi-final around the same time against Oldcastle and they buried it. We weathered that storm - luckily enough St Michael’s missed.
‘Look, it might have been a different game if that had gone in. They have very good forwards, the key was not to let them get their tails up. They might have tagged on a few more scores and it could have been a different game if that penalty had gone in.
‘I wouldn’t say we were 10 points better than them - they are a good side, I suppose we didn’t let them play, they probably drained off near the end.’
Morgan will hardly have to be enticed to stay on for next year as the club look forward to Senior football for the very first time.
‘Since January we said we’d leave no stone unturned to win the IFC and that’s what we did today. You’d have to stay on after this. It is great for the club, never in the senior ranks previously, so yeah it’s a great achievement.’