Getting written off was motivation for Mohill says O'Hara

Mohill are back to where they’ve been for the last four seasons - in the Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final and chasing glory but manager Eamonn O’Hara feels that seeing his side being written off may have been the perfect motivation for the 2020 champions.

Speaking after Sunday’s epic extra time victory over League winners Fenagh St Caillins, Eamonn stressed that winning the semi-final only puts Mohill were they set out to be at the start of the year: “It just sets you into the position of the goals you set yourself at the start of the year and that was to get back to another County Final.”

Neither did he feel that Sunday’s performance was near Mohill’s best - when asking if Mohill had passed the Fenagh test with flying colours, Eamonn said “I wouldn’t say flying colours to be honest with you, delighted with the final result but I suppose I’ve been part of enough semi-finals and it is all about the result. When that final whistle blew, to win it, we were absolutely over the moon. A lot of people had us written off and I supposed we used that for a little bit of motivation.”

Mohill strike in extra-time epic to break Fenagh hearts and reach fourth Connacht Gold SFC Final in a row

MOHILL 2-13 FENAGH ST CAILLINS 0-13 (AET)

Playing in such awful conditions, Eamonn praised both sets of players for delivering such a spectacle but praised his team for clawing their way back into the game after Fenagh’s seven point surge after halftime: “The lads showed up exceptional well at the start, obviously going 7-2 up at halftime, a carbon copy of the county final last year and it was a carbon copy as we just couldn’t get a grip of it in the second half.

“We probably clapped ourselves on the back too much and it just took us a while to sort of wrestle it back. In fairness, that last 15 minutes of the second half, it was tit for tat, exceptional football and we’re just grateful for that. We thought we had a free in at the very, very end and Ray just blew the whistle but listen, that’s the way it goes.”

As for extra-time, getting the goals was huge in the context of a strength sapping game: “Extra time, we turned up you know. We’d have taken extra-time in the county final last year but we never got the opportunity so I’m just proud of the lads. The goals, the first was an opportunist one, it wasn’t one that we had set up - we just put pressure on their kickout and we managed to scramble it over.

“Then the second one, Fenagh had to go for it and we picked them apart. Really, just delighted with the result but the overall performance and consistency of performance will have to improve. We managed it well, you know, once you get your noses in front, traditionally in extra time, it is always one point to two or it could only be one point in it, it is all about keeping the play. 

“They won the toss, went with the wind and got the first point. But we wrestled it back to go level at halftime of extra time and then we just got the scores at the right time and you could see the frustration building up in Fenagh at that point and we knew we just had to game manage it at that point - that ten minutes goes really, really quick in extra time so we had to manage it. The lads on the pitch were exceptional.”

Those performances on a draining pitch stood out for the former Sligo All Star: “The conditions - they were horrendous but the desire and the hard work, the intensity of each collision - it may not have been pretty but it was definitely intense and every fella gave everything out there. 

“We’ve got 35 lads in there and there are 15 to 22 lads who will be sore tomorrow morning but you’d take that soreness to be preparing for a County Final. It is the nature of football - as it happened, we ended playing League football during the Summer and then, come September, it is always going to be wet. This is not new to us, it is unfortunate that two weeks ago the weather was so great and then all of a sudden, two weeks later, we’re playing in muck, it is winter football, it is not attractive, it could be looked at - I know there is talk around the split season but we just have to deal with it. 

Fans brave awful conditions as St Mary's and Mohill set up Connacht Gold SFC Final repeat - GALLERY

Fans brave torrential rain and cold in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada as Mohill and St Mary's Kiltoghert beat Fenagh St Caillins and Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins to book their place in this year's Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final. Despite the rain, Observer photographer Willie Donnellan caputred some great shots of fans taking in the action .... see who you can spot!

“This is where we find ourselves and I don’t think it is ever going to change, it’s wetter it might be getting. We’re just happy to be in the final. If it is teeming with rain and mucky conditions in the final, we’ve had perfect preparations for it.”

The Mohill manager also felt that the scheduling of the League Final is something that might have happened Fenagh as it hampered Mohill last year: “Fenagh are fantastic, they are League champions this year - we were League champions last year and it didn’t do us any good in terms of not getting that extra day’s break. We ended up losing two championship games in the lead into the final last year. This year, we’ve gone unbeaten. We weighed it up, everything has kind of gone to plan.”