Regan admits Naomh Conaill were 'blessed' to get past Gowna

Martin Regan didn't try to dress it into something that it wasn’t at the mouth of the Kingspan Breffni tunnel.

The Naomh Conaill manager had just seen his side scrape their way into the Ulster Club SFC semi-final when the game appeared up. Down the years Naomh Conaill have developed a reputation of being the masters of coming through tight games, although this was not derived from the same script.

“We were blessed,” Regan said after the 2-8 to 1-10 2 win. “There is no doubt about that, Gowna were the better team. They were very good and pressed high, we struggled to get out and to be honest, we did well to stay in the game.”

Naomh Conaill snatch one-point victory against Gowna from an injury-time goal

Kevin McGettigan was the hero for Naomh Conaill, as he pulled their Ulster Club SFC dreams from a fire when they looked to be crashing out against Gowna

Leo McLoone’s goal made for a decent Naomh Conaill lead of four points at the break, although Regan admits his half-time team talk was one peppered with caution. As the second half took shape, Gowna were the ones grabbing control and when Conor Brady slapped home a goal their tails were up.

That made it 1-5 to 1-5, then it went on like that to 1-8 apiece before Gowna, through Brady and Cian Madden, with late scores put Naomh Conaill on the brink. Then in the 64th minute, from a last-chance saloon type of ball from Anthony Thompson into the square, Kevin McGettigan poked home an unlikely winner.

“We had a couple of chances at 1-8 each and when Gowna got ahead I thought that was it. The goal we got, well it was just luck. Nine times out of 10 you get nothing from a ball in like that, less even. But look, last year we were three up against Cargin and they got a goal in the last minute.”

In 2022, Naomh Conaill fell at the first hurdle in Ulster, going down to the Antrim champions Cargin on penalties following a 2-13 apiece draw. There may have been flashbacks for Regan and his management team from that game, whilst looking on against Gowna.

“Like last year, you expect teams to have a go,” Regan added. “That’s what Ulster is like. All these teams are aggressive and all of them have won their county championships. We knew it would be fine margins. It was exactly what we expected and we’re delighted to come out on the right side of it. I can’t remember ever winning a game like that.

“Gowna were four down and had nothing to lose at half-time and they were brilliant in that second half. They will be very disappointed. We didn’t feel overly comfortable at any stage as we’ve seen a lot of Gowna and all year they just keep going. They can get goals out of nowhere, so they were going to come at us. The game was not safe at half-time and we didn’t kick on at half-time.”

Naomh Conaill now face Derry’s Watty Grahams Glen in the semi-finals, with Scotstown from Monaghan and Tyrone’s Trillick meeting on the other side of the draw.

“Glen won’t be losing much sleep over that, watching us,” Regan said. “But we can knuckle down and last year, we watched on as Cargin played Glen and were thinking ‘that could’ve been us’. It can be hard to watch. Look we weren’t great today but we are where we want to be and we’re playing one of the best teams in Ireland now.”