This article is from page 76 of the 2011-07-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 76 JPG
WHEN you think about it, it’s been a tough few years for Ennistymon when it comes to senior football. Very tough at times, when losing just always seemed to be their lot when there was some senior silverware at stake.
The 2007 Senior B final and they go down to St Joseph’s Miltown; the 2009 Senior B final and it was Kilmhil’s turn to hold them scoreless in the first half on their way to victory; the hat-trick of defeats came when Wolfe Tones mastered them last year in another Senior B decider.
Sometimes though, enough is enough.
Maybe this will be the day that Ennistymon look back on and say was pivotal in their development as a force in senior. Of course, only time will tell if it’s a real building block for the future, but what it has done already is lend more credence to the belief that the north Clare Magpies are one of the coming teams in Clare football.
They’ve won minor and under 21 titles in recent years – now this Garry Cup as they look to Cusack Cup football for 2012, not that manager Brendan Rouine was getting carried away afterwards.
“To go up to Division 1, having won Division 2 is important for us. For us in Division 2 it has been all about getting promoted. It has taken us the last four or five years to do that. It is nice to go up as winners.
“We are coming from a big struggle. We struggle to get out of our group in the championship every year and we still have two games to play to try and get out of our group. We’re taking one game at a time and are not going to get carried away with this win.
“We are very happy with the win. Éire Óg got off to a good start and had plenty of ball, but we were happy with our overall performance and it was good to get the win.
“We knew that Éire Óg would come back at us in the second half. It was ding-dong at times and we knew that the game could have gone either way. We just edged it on the day, but on another day it could have been a different result. We know that.”