KEVIN CASSIDY: Championship regret

IT’S Monday. It’s 5.30am. I’m sitting in the Terminal Two departure lounge. The flight to Dortmund beckons. My mind has already wandered to what might have been.

I’m after meeting Mr Celtic – Marty Gilmore from the Ballymena Shamrocks club. I promised him I’ll try and behave better than Jamie Carragher did last year when he was in the yellow wall but, as I said to Marty, I can’t promise anything. I thought I’d better sit here and compose this week’s column before the German beer starts to flow.

There will be a novel pairing in this year’s Donegal Senior football Championship final in a week’s’ time. Early favourites St Eunan’s have made it through where they will be joined by Dungloe who are in their first final in 60 years. I will touch on that game in a little more depth next week as this week I’d like to run over the semi-finals.

I made my way to Ballybofey on Saturday evening full of hope. Not a lot of people gave Gaoth Dobhair a chance last Saturday but, having watched their group games, I saw first hand just how difficult St Eunan’s found it to create any meaningful space.

One thing that has always there between both clubs is massive respect. I think that comes from the rich history and tradition of both clubs. That said, one thing I know is that Gaoth Dobhair never fear St Eunan’s.

No matter when they play or who is playing for both teams, we just never fear them. We respect them but never fear. With that in mind, I knew our lads would be full of confidence heading into that game.

The game itself was tetchy with both teams wasting a number of opportunities.

The score at half time was 0-5 to 0-3 to St Eunan’s. The Gaoth Dobhair players would have been happy at half time but one thing did concern me. We only scored three points in the first half.

I felt going into the game that we would need to hit 12 or 13 points, so I was worried with only three on board at half time.

The lads did well and St Eunan’s just couldn’t pull away but there was a period in the second half when things were tight and it just needed a spark to get you over the line.

Neil McGee was beside me and we both looked at each other. No words were needed as we both knew exactly what needed to happen from a Gaoth Dobhair point of view.

St Eunan’s were rattled and on the ropes. We needed to start a row and let all hell break loose. That spark we would have gotten from that row would have kicked us over the line. I’m sure of it.

The problem was that we had lost all of our soldiers who could sniff when that needed to happen in a game and they wouldn’t hesitate to do it. That sort of game management or nastiness, if you want to call it that, is hard to coach. You either have it in you or you don’t but I know one thing standing on that terrace, the man beside me would have rattled someone with a shoulder and I would have been straight in to back him up. We didn’t get that spark we needed and St Eunan’s held out to book their place in the final.

When you look at the game as a whole, we just didn’t create enough scoring chances so we can’t have any complaints.

St Eunan’s have now beaten Glenties, who were going for three in-a-row, and Gaoth Dobhair who were in the final last year, so they are battle hardened heading into the final and no doubt they will be hard to beat.

Dungloe will make their first final appearance since 1964 and what an achievement that is for the club. They have been solid now over the last two years so they get their just rewards. It’s a big ask for them to win it outright but you just never know.