CONVERTING pressure kicks is Ruairi McCann’s trade. The Kickham’s Creggan playmaker had already converted six points (0-5 from play) in the opening half against Lamh Dhearg – but somehow the defending champions found themselves needing an equaliser six minutes into stoppage-time despite leading for most of Sunday's tie.
With the Lamh Dhearg dug-out just a few feet away and facing into a terrible angle for a ’45, McCann struck the ball beautifully to land it between the posts and grab a share of the spoils against the Hannahstown men in their Group One opener.
Creggan boss Gerard McNulty insisted McCann’s placed ball conversion was better than Sean O’Shea’s of Kerry, while Lamh Dhearg’s Marc Jordan described it as Rian O’Neill-esque.
“You just go back to what you normally do,” McCann said matter-of-factly afterwards.
“You’re standing in front of their bench so you have to zone out a bit, just hone in on the ball. It’s really two things: the ball and where you’re trying to put it and all the rest is just noise.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of those moments in the past and the more you’re exposed to them, the more you can revert to the process.”
The county ace added: “We led that game for 61 minutes but we were the ones that equalised, so you can say we’re glad of the point but we really should have been coming away with the two points. We were in a position for 90 per cent of the game to do so. We just need to close the game out in a different manner than what we did.”
It wasn’t a win-or-bust scenario for Creggan, but had they lost their opening championship game it would have sent shockwaves through the county.
McCann had an outstanding game overall, but so too did Conor Murray who hauled Lamh Dhearg back into the game with a late 1-2 salvo.
Murray’s goal four minutes into stoppage-time edged the 2017 champions in front for the first time before McCann’s late, late show.
The Creggan man was fulsome in his praise for his opposite number and county team-mate after Sunday’s drawn game.
“It’s alright when you’re playing with Conor, but it’s different when you’re playing against him,” he said.
“When Conor Murray gets the ball inside the 13-yard box, your heart is in your mouth. You know the ball is going in one place. I knew whenever he had the ball where it was going.
“After he’d scored, it was a case of trying to get the ball up the pitch as quickly as we could and thankfully it worked out for us.”
Sunday’s clash marked the return of Creggan forward Liam Quinn who has endured a wretched time with injury over the last 18 months.
A MacRory Cup winner with St Mary’s Magherafelt in 2017, Quinn looked very sharp against Lamh Dhearg, while Conor Small is expected to return to the championship stage after missing Creggan’s historic success last season.
“It was a big achievement for the group last year to win the championship without two of our best forwards,” McCann said.
“It’s great to have Liam back, he’s looking sharp, and we’ve also Dominic McAteer in there too who was away for a few years working. I think in any campaign you need to add more than what you had in the previous year if you want to improve.
“Having old faces back in should hopefully reinforce the squad and further our squad depth which is one of our biggest assets.”
In beating Aghagallon in last season’s county final, the Kickham’s club bridged a gap of 67 years since they last annexed a senior title.
McCann insists that the title carries no extra pressure among the squad in 2022.
“My own personal thoughts are that nobody is champions any more. We won it last year and the new championship has started.
“Maybe for other teams it’s an incentive [playing Creggan] but for us it’s sticking to our plan which is playing the next game and beating the next team in front of you and hopefully you end up where you were last year.
“But it’s a long campaign, especially with the group format, you have to take it a game at a time. If you go into games thinking about last year, it doesn’t do you any good.”
