An education for Annaduff says manager Padraig McGourty after Fenagh defeat

Some may regard them as cannon fodder for the big guns but Padraig McGourty spoke of the disappointment in the Annaduff camp at a lost opportunity following their 1-25 to 1-7 defeat at the hands of Fenagh St Caillins in the Connacht Gold SFC last Friday.

“I suppose we’re a bit disappointed because the opportunity was huge today,” Padraig told the Observer, “More or less, if you won today, you were in a quarter-final. We’re a bit disappointed with the way the score went in the end.”

Yet even in an 18 point loss, Padraig saw the undoubted potential in a young Annaduff team but admitted that the cost of going toe to toe with Fenagh cost them in the second half: “Our first half was very good in lots of things that we done, we left a couple of chances after us, we gave the ball away a little bit which gave them scores.

“You can’t do that against a team that is probably five or six years down the road further than we are and that was the difference - they increased the intensity on the kickout just after halftime and they pinned us in for long periods and we just couldn’t get out. It is an education for us in terms of the level we have to get to if we want to compete at the top end of the Senior Championship.”

Yet there is plenty of optimism in the Annaduff ranks with seemingly a conveyor belt of quality young footballers emerging from the club: “There is a lot of good footballers in that team, right from the back out, the likes of Eoghan Ridge, Darren, Niall Quigley who didn’t play today because he is carrying an injury and you have the likes of Senan Mooney upfront who is only out of Minor and is playing Senior football.

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“There is a lot of potential in it, they are well capable - they showed the first half they are well capable of competing but probably the level of effort that went in during the first half, we probably couldn’t match that in the second half because we’re not used to playing games against this quality of opposition.

“We just have to learn from the next couple of weeks and hopefully build into the future of what happens over the next three or four weeks.  It is about ourselves now and getting ready for the next round.”

Speaking before the draw that pitted them against Mohill was made on Sunday, Padraig said “The draw will be what the draw will be, there are lots of different scenarios - we’ll get a bit of recovery in, go again on Tuesday night and see what the draw brings and go again in two weeks time.”