McCafferty happy with Naomh Brid improvement from first week

Naomh Brid got the better of Urris in a titanic struggle in very difficult conditions in Trummon on Saturday evening and manager Declan McCafferty was happy enough, especially after they had lost heavily to Convoy in the opening round of games.

“It was a big improvement on last week. We were kinda disappointed with the way things went in Convoy,” said McCafferty, after watching his side snatch victory with a late free by Eoin Rush.

“We’re down a lot of players at the minute between injuries and lads away. It’s about building and maybe today will help; it will give us a bit of a boost. Listen, we’re probably happy to get the result but maybe the performance will have to come up a wee bit again,” said McCafferty, who added he was happy with the way a lot of the young players handled themselves in the conditions.

“The oldest there is probably Gary McCafferty at 37 and you’ve a lot of young lads around 20, 21. So we’re trying to build and it’s going to take a bit of time but if we keep them all together I think it should happen with them.”

Naomh Brid had a great run in the first half and went 9-3 up but Urris came back at the end of the first half and went ahead early in the second.

“We had a good period but we let them back in and they got a two pointer and a point and then they got 1-1 at the start of the second half and that is something we need to look at.”

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Both sides had the lead in the second half but McCafferty agreed that the Naomh Brid goal from Aaron McGrory made a difference. The goal put Naomh Brid four ahead but Urris came back and went one up again with a two pointer in a very exciting last 10 minutes.

Back came Naomh Brid with a Billy Harron point before Rush stepped up to win the game for the home side. But even then Urris had a great opportunity in the final seconds but the goal chance was blazed wide.

“You wouldn’t know what way the wind was going at times. But listen, we got the crucial scores at the right time. But that last chance they had, it could have gone to the back of the net as quickly as it went wide.

“We’re away to Naomh Ultan next week and hopefully we can get another couple of lads back,” said McCafferty.

Division 3 will be an interesting one for the clubs in the south with a good number of local derbies including Pettigo and St Naul’s as well as Naomh Ultan.

“They’re all good teams and we’ll have to be at our best to compete with them.”