"We were thinking about quitting" - Ken
It's been something of a bittersweet year for Drumkeerin with ast Sunday's deserved victory in the Under 21 B Championship final in Ballinaglera sparking scenes of joy and relief after their dramatic heartbreak in the Intermediate Final.
Drumkeerin manager Ken McPartland acknowledged after last Sunday’s victory that it was tough to lift the players after the Intermediate final, even admitting that he contemplating quitting the job.
“It took them a long time to get back out and as Keith Gallagher said (when accepting the Michael McGloin Memorial Cup) we might have training and no one would be coming out and we were even thinking about quitting the whole lot at one time, but they came out and when we got the first game over us that got them back.
“For a long time after the Intermediate final it wasn’t good. We had three league games left and we lost the three of them, the interest was gone but we came back,” stated Ken.
The Drumkeerin manager always felt Drumkeerin were strong enough to go all the way after they reached the A final last year - “We set our stall out as we did for the whole year, we took one game at a time. We knew we were good enough, we knew we had the players to do it after last year.
“We lost three players from last year but we knew that we were strong enough. I suppose only that we didn’t have the numbers we would have played in the A championship, but I knew they were good enough to win the game.”
Ken paid tribute to them saying “they played well, you couldn’t take it away from them. They’re a great crowd of lads.
“We trained every Friday night for the last four or five weeks. We didn’t kill them training,” laughed Ken. “It was a tough game but our boys are strong, sturdy boys and they never give up.”
Ken picked out Daragh Flynn’s goal in the opening minute as crucial, saying “that was the start we wanted. We said that we needed a good start because Carrigallen always play an open, fast game and if you can hold them for the first 15-20 minutes, you’ll always have a chance because they do play football.”
Considering that they were considering not taking part in the championship, Ken and selector John McTiernan managed to get the players in top condition for the final with Drumkeerin looking the fitter side in the closing stages.
When it was put to him that it ends the year on positive note, ken agreed saying “it does, it’s great to get a win after all the hard work. We’ll give it another shot next year.”
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: West
