" In the cold light of day "
To start off I want to congratulate Kinsale,its players,management an supporters on their victory an wish them best of luck in the final.:o
To say I was gutted on hearing the final whistle would be an understatement.I wish I was able to turn the clock back to when I could play like I used to because I would have given anythin to get onto that pitch for the last half hour.I am lucky to have played in the AOH final itself on a couple of occasions an there is no better feeling to take part an indeed win one.I was told(with the intent to ease my sorrows) when I lost my first final that you had to lose one to appriciate the chance you had an that way you would learn how lucky you are to even have a 2nd chance to win the Aoh cup.The second time around as luck an hard work had it our club an indeed myself won our first an only Aoh to date.
Saturday,,,,,,well Tizz an Bog well done again.For me the word excuse is only used when someone dose not have the balls to admit that they either wer'nt good enough on the day or where they lost a game fair an square an are'nt man enough to admit it. We wer'nt good enough in critical areas an we lost fair an square.We have no one else but ourselves to blame.We had more than enough opertuinitys especially in the 2nd half to win the game an we just couldnt put the ball in the net.I thought kinsale were excellent at the back.I tip my hat to the Kinsale keeper(for me the man of the match),on the day he was the difference between Kinsale winning an loosing..Fantastic saves.He made a save towards the end of the match the likes of which I have never seen in any game.Make no mistake those of you who saw the save,the ball did not hit him he was on the ground tryin to get up an got his hand to deflect the ball over from nearly point blank range
The winner came against the run of play when I actually thought we had ye at breakin point.Just as Harry an Figo were about to bear down on yer goal the defender got the slighest of touchs to catch the whole Grattan team goin the wrong way and again indecision amoungst our defenders cost us.Simplest thing in the world to just kick/head a ball an all of a sudden we forget how to at the most cruical time.The only ones I felt sorry for at the end were the managment an the Chairman.They put a hell of a lot into those players an deserved better than what was given Saturday.I honestly belive there is greatness in this young side but to go from being a good side as we are now to become a truly great side we have to start to take the opertuinitys we are being given.
In the last 18 months we have lost the quaters of the Fai junior,Munster junior,the semis of the Mossie an 2 Aoh semis,all but one were our home fixtures.Being honest again in each of those games we had the games in our hands an let in slip away.As players you will only get to win things when you take the opertuinitys that ar there for you to take.Kinsale took advantage of our mistakes,again.We could do well to learn a thing or 2 from Kinsale.They defended simply an effectively,they never waited for the ref to bail them out they just played until the ref blew an took no chances.There goals were well taken with no extra touchs or messin about,bang into the net end of story.For some reason we expect the ref to blow his whistle just because we think there was a foul/offside rather than the ref or linesman makin the call.
For me this season has much in common with the previous one.We had excellent runs in all cup competitions an suffered heartbreak with in touchin distance of a couple of finals.We were left at the end of it having to raise ourselves from the pain of defeat to win the league.I hope the players are strong enough to do that again
2nd day out at the cross for the seasiders
many thanks for the well wishes littleman
i feel your pain with the semi loss, its our 1st aoh final and even though we've had our share of great victories in the past few years this is definately a day out that all involved with kinsale has been hoping for and we will take our opportunity with full knowledge that theres a big prize at the end, we've likewise had bad days out that our lads will remember (including a turners cross loss to bally in the mossie this year) so hopefully that will still sting our squad into performing on the night of 23-May
just on the match on saturday, many thanks for the warm welcome to o'neill park, the pitch and support up there was the best we've encountered this year, the surface was immaculate and a huge compliment must be paid to all involved in the effort put in to get it in that condition
we were somewhat shaken to give a goal away so cheaply after 3 minutes, hurley in goal was rooted after some head tennis from a long throw in and it was a terrible start for us, i felt we defended very comfortably thereafter and even though ye seemed to have about 30 corners and just as many free kicks which were thrown into our area, pat murph and the rest seemed to lap it up, we always had a chance on the break and should have probably got an equaliser prior to scully nodding in from a long goal kick when your keeper seemed to be taking a walk
grattan certainly bossed possession, territory and as previsouly mentioned free kicks and corners but i felt kinsale have found a belief that we've been lacking in from recent games, richie holland scored a great goal after 5 mins in the 1st half of extra time and i thought he shone in extra time holding up play and forcing corners and throw ins deep in the grattan half
good scoring chances were not as common as previous encounters and maybe that suited us on the day, we'll have a good run off park down in the cross, we have to play them 3 times in the next couple of weeks and with them still in the running for the league these games promise to be big big clashes, we have them up at the fort next saturday and a lot will be taken from that game
glenthorn away tonight is a huge game for us, they've had a great season and we'll be getting nothing soft, time to forget about the aoh and get another 3 points on the board, kanturk up in hollyhill will give ye a game but i'd expect ye to bounce back after the disappointment on saturday, we'll see ye in a couple of weeks anyway and hopefully we're still in with a shot at the league holders
well done to wilton as champs and blarney st for promotion, will look forward to more footballers in the prem next year
any developments in things down in little island- the families of everyone involved are still in our thoughts so good luck with the remaining games if ye are going to take them on
shot thru the foot and we're to blame
glenthorn certainly gave us a game but it came down to our missed chances and poor finishing, i think the semi win hangover and tired legs affected some players and a bit of bad luck to rub salt in the wound
we started well but gave away a jammy goal after about 10 minutes, a pooly water shot trickled past hurley after some of our defenders seemed to be taking that same walk, we had chances playing up the hill (on a "fair" pitch) but went in at 1-0 down, a few enforced changes didnt help matters and any of our chances seemed to be from long balls and looking for 2nds from knock ons, the midfield for me let us down on the night and thorn went 2-0 up from a breakaway after we had a corner, small nippy young fella up front turned 2 defenders and managed to squeeze it home past hurley after about 60 mins
we managed to huff and puff and create lots of chances playing down the hill, their keeper had a very good game but it all came down to us not being as sharp as we should in front of goal, we pulled one back from a richocheted free kick in their box and chance after chance was squandered and 2-1 it finished, glenthorn players and supporters alike were time wasting after the 2nd went in, from booting the ball away after rolling over the line to plain old not giving a fcuk what the ref said- he even said that he'd write it in his report what was going on - what the fcuk is that gonna do about the result ???
stephen o'connell bottled out of a few big decisions, we should have had 2 penos in the 1st half and he didnt feel it necessary to book anyone for time wasting, they are not excuses littleman, its all down to our own bad finishing but it gets compounded when you dont get a fair shout with decisions, he added on plenty of injury time which glenthorn seemded put out by- even though they were wasting time for the whole 90 minutes but we just couldnt manage it, the result came down to us conceding 2 bad goals and not taking chances at the other end, glenthorn were a poor side but made us look worse on the night, looks like yours to lose now, we'll be having a look at park on sat but for us it looks like concentrating on the aoh for now
good win against kanturk and ye can nearly smell it, i dont see ye losing it now- might sound defeatist but i've been involved in too many games to not have some idea of how things will pan out, and best of luck to ye, ye've picked up the points when required, scored for fun against the poor teams and battled for points against the stronger teams, if that aint championship winning form then i might as well pack it in for tennis !
we might catch you for that pint in the anglers in a few weeks after all
