McFadden happy to get a draw to stay unbeaten after Glenswilly's slow start

Glenswilly had it all to do at the beginning of the second half in their SFC round two tie with Sean MacCumhaills, but to the delight of forward Gary McFadden, they managed to salvage a point.

Nine down on the short whistle, having hit the last four scores to reduce the deficit, Gary McDaid’s side needed something to kick them on in the game.

Caoimhin Marley’s two pointer and Mark Bonner’s goal helped, but there was still seven in it on 50 minutes, although McFadden’s two pointer sparked them into life.

Momentum grew and another couple of minutes in the game could have seen them come away with the win, but McFadden felt from their position at half-time, a draw was a good result. 

“We were much better in the second half, there was a wee bit of a breeze that picked up and died in ten minute spells.

“We didn’t play well at all in the first half, we sort of stood off them compared to last week (against Naomh Conaill), when we were pressing into the tackle.

“But we gave them too much time and space on the ball, and they’re a good side with some great players and if you give them that (space) then they’ll get points.

“We were down a big score at half-time but with the way the modern game is going, you’re never really out of the game.

“But when you are that far back, you are glad to get anything from the game, but we’d be mainly disappointed with the first half performance. If we did anything in the first half we could have won the game.

“We’re happy to get the draw and the point on the board but we wouldn’t be happy with that first half.”

The draw leaves both MacCumhaills and Glenswilly on three points and unbeaten after two games, which McFadden has been pleased with, given their opening win against Naomh Conaill was seen as a bit of an upset.

“In other years, you wouldn’t expect to get two points against Naomh Conaill and then we dropped points but the way the club championship is now, it’s like the county football in that there is no real gap between seven or eight teams that could potentially win it.

“There’s no such thing as the two or three teams miles ahead, but maybe when they get the county boys back, then it could be that way.

“But there are a lot of teams knocking on the door and if you take your eye off the ball, then you could get nicked and we learned that in the first half, we weren’t up to the level and we got punished for it.”

With Michael Murphy absent, the Glenswilly attack was on the youthful side, and while Caoimhin Marley did start in place of Reid Kelly, McFadden was the only man in the front six named to start who wasn’t Under-21 last year.

“We counted last week, we had twelve starting between Under-21 and minors from the last couple of years so they may be inexperienced, but they’ve all played a really high level at Under-16 and 18s and 21s, they’ve been playing ‘A’ Championships and getting to finals.

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“When we were that age, it was always ‘B’ and ‘C’ Championships and Division two or three, so they’re doing well and they have plenty of legs and with the new rules, you need legs.

“They’re a breath of fresh air in training and they’re giving it a good lift. It’s a pleasure to be hanging on as long as I can and keep playing.”