Four Masters manager Sinclair wants to take learnings rather than apportion blame

As usual after games, Four Masters manager, Kevin Sinclair was fairly forthright, and after watching his side lose a seven point lead against Glenswilly, he was still able to give a fairly accurate assessment of a contest that was pretty entertaining for the neutral.

Despite that, there had to be a measure of disappointment for the Four Masters boss at the end of the contest.

“Without a doubt. They ended up the better team, in the second half especially. They took their chances better and deserved the win. As the man says, the conditions were a factor. We are a young, light team and conditions were pretty heavy there. 

“We didn’t make hay when we did have a bit of a lead. And the football IQ in Glenswilly is fairly high, both on and off the field.

“But look, we are disappointed, but we are trying to learn as we go along and we will definitely learn from today.”

Four Masters were by far the better team in the opening half and thanks to a late Seanán Carr goal, they went in at half-time ahead by 1-6 to 1-2. When Carr pounced for his second goal just 30 seconds into the new half, few would have back against the Donegal Town outfit.

But then up stepped Michael Murphy to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Glenswilly would score 1-7 in the second half and Murphy’s imprint was on every one of those scores.

However, many felt a big turning point came six minutes into the second half with the lead back to four, Jamie Crawford and Conor Reid combining for Reid to draw a penalty. Seanán Carr’s effort to complete his hat-trick was denied by Kealan McFadden in the Glenswilly goal and the Donegal Town side would score just one more point in the half.

“It was, you could say it was a big opportunity missed. But look, we had other opportunities and I wouldn’t be hard on the young fella, he was brave enough to go up there and have a go,” said Sinclair, who agreed he took his other two goals very well.

“I think we lost it in other places. We were too far out and we gave Michael (Murphy) a bit of room there. They could have two other goals they didn’t take. We were lucky in the end to be just two points (adrift). We are disappointed but hopefully we will learn from it.”

The home club had to do trojan work to even get the pitch ready for the contest, such was the heavy overnight rain.

“There were seven or eight of us out here all morning with forks trying to get it ready. It was a slog and you’re not expecting that type of football at this time of year when you start off in January. It was a pity, but at the end of the day it is what it is. We can blame the pitch, we can blame all sorts but they scored more than us at the end of the day.”

When put to Sinclair that having two wins out of three would have been a pretty good position to be in, he was having none of it.

“No, (we wouldn’t be happy). We would have been quietly confident in ourselves. We are building nicely and we like to think we are a match for anybody here in Tirconaill Park. So we are disappointed to lose a game here,” said Sinclair.