‘Rollercoaster’ year for McPartland’s men comes to an end

SHAMROCK Gaels manager John McPartland has described as a ‘rollercoaster’, his club’s 2018 championship campaign.

Having topped their group, McPartland’s men had to come through a semi-final replay against Enniscrone/Kilglass before needing another replay to see off Curry in the final.

A Connnacht quarter-final defeat of Leitrim’s Fenagh at Quigabar extended their provincial odyssey for another week. But Gaels’ season came to shuddering halt at Connolly Park on Sunday against a well-drilled Fuerty outfit.

“The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster but the Connacht Championship has brought us back down to earth”, McPartland reflected.

On the game itself, he conceded: “We made too many mistakes and didn’t score enough.

“First half, we weren’t up to the pace of the game. You have to hand it to Fuerty, they pushed up on us and punished every mistake we made. I have no problem in saying it, they were the better team on the day.”

Down 2-8 to just a single score, the Fermanagh man admitted it was a tough half-time team talk to give, but praised his young guns for an improved showing in the second period.

“We did believe in ourselves and in the second half we didn’t put that much on the scoreboard but we competed better. We gave everything but we just didn’t have it. We have a lot of young lads and maybe it caught over them a little. They’re a good physical side who tackle hard. Maybe our younger lads found that hard to take.”

McPartland refused to be drawn on whether he will be the man to lead Shamrock Gaels into 2019, but spoke of his pride when considering all that’s been achieved at Coola over the past year.

“The target this year was to move ourselves up in the league which we did”, he said. “And to go for the championship, which we did. The target for whoever’s here next year is to stay there and maybe make a few steps in the league.

“We’re up where we want to be in the senior championship. That’s where we want to stay and we don’t want to be coming back down again.”