Northern Switchgear Antrim Senior Football Championship: O’Donovan Rossa, Belfast 0-6 Creggan Kickhams 1-8
IT seemed like a violation of their human rights to keep opposing managers out in the sheeting rain for a few post-match comments yesterday afternoon.
To appreciate how bad conditions were, well, you just had to be there. It lashed from start to finish at St Enda's, Glengormley yesterday afternoon on a pitch that was more suited to surfing than playing football by half-time.
This quarter-final clash between Creggan Kickhams and O’Donovan Rossa will be remembered for the woeful playing conditions rather than the canny ability of the defending champions to come through unscathed.
Creggan may only have notched a meagre 1-8 - but their second half performance was brilliant on so many levels.
They limited their handling errors to a bare minimum while Rossa simply couldn't match them. Gerard McNulty's men led 1-3 to 0-3 at the half-time interval - with Ruairi McCann raising a green flag - and they pressed home their advantage when the game resumed.
One of the major talking points yesterday was should the game have been abandoned?
Both McNulty and 'Rossa boss Hugh McGettigan could not have protested had referee Karol Doherty called a halt to the tie due to the amount of surface water that saw players slipping and sliding their way through the second half, sometimes dangerously so.
Even-tempered as always, McGettigan said afterwards: “The rain that fell at half-time was enough for the referee to call the match off. We were disappointed with the shape of the pitch.
“Anyway, the match went on. We’ve no complaints. Creggan were just the slightly more skilful team in those conditions and a wee bit heavier. But I don’t think the right decision was made.”
Throughout the second half, the ’Rossa backroom team beseeched the referee to abandon the game, but to no avail.
“To be honest, I thought the pitch would have held out as it did in the first half but we couldn’t believe the amount of water was on the pitch for the start of the second half,” Creggan boss Gerard McNulty said.
Of course, Rossa were always trailing and therefore it was a lot easier for them to lobby for an abandonment.
“If Rossa were ahead would they have wanted it called off? I get all that,” McNulty said.
“It was the ref’s call and if he had called it off I wouldn’t have said anything. The safety of the players is the most important thing. You could see the ball starting to stick in the last couple of minutes.”
With a repeat of last year’s semi-final with neighbours Cargin in a fortnight’s time, Creggan can be very happy with the way they adapted to the hazardous conditions.
“It was hard to move the ball with the wind and the rain in the players’ eyes,” McNulty said, “but, to be fair to them, I was really happy with both halves.
“We knew what ’Rossa would do; they wanted to invite us into the tackle and hit us on the break, but we kept the ball, kept it and kept it.
“We used both wings really well and we hit a couple of excellent long range points in the second half.
“We left Kevin [Rice] in at full-forward and then gave him a free role and I thought the two lads in midfield – Keelan McCann and Kevin Small were very, very good. And Ricky [Johnston] played another full game so that’s him moving up another notch as well and he’s getting back to full fitness. So, overall, I’m pleased compared to the last day [against St John."
