Barry Meehan praises character shown by St Eunan's to defeat Naomh Conaill

There was a sense of relief on the St Eunan's bench when Marc Brown blew the final whistle in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey on Saturday night with the Letterkenny men a point ahead after a titanic battle with old rivals Naomh Conaill.

It was billed as the county final by many neutrals, which probably doesn't do justice to the other sides still in the contest, but in the end St Eunan's prevailed thanks to a point in added time by Eoin McGeehin.

It was a game of two halves with St Eunan's looking the part in the opening 32 minutes while Naomh Conaill held sway for much of the second half and held St Eunan's scoreless for 20 minutes.

St Eunan's boss Barry Meehan was pretty relieved but also happy with the way his side showed character when the game threatened to get away from them especially when Naomh Conaill hit five points on the trot to edge ahead.

"At half-time 7-3 up, we were very happy. I thought we were very good in transition, very good at getting forward. We weren't giving them time to get back and set up.

"But look, we knew they were going to come in the second half, and they did come. When they went 8-7 up, we could easily have wilted there. But we didn't and we showed massive, massive character. To win championships you have to show that character," said Meehan.

With the tide really going against the Letterkenny men, they needed a score and it was Darragh Mulgrew who turned the tide.

"Darragh Mulgrew and Eoin McGeehin, two big scores and Ciaran Moore is Ciaran Moore, I don't know what to say. You can play him anywhere. I joked early on in the year you could play him in nets, you probably could.

"Naomh Conaill came back at us in the second half and when they did go one up I thought we were in trouble; we were in trouble but the way the boys dug deep and kept digging away, I was very happy."

While the game was very well contested, a big talking point afterwards was the huge number of turnovers on both sides, especially in the second half.

"Listen, part of the reason for that and I'm guessing here, that Autumn dew. The ball seemed to get very slippy. You're talking top quality players out there who don't usually drop players. It affected both teams."

Asked if he felt the half-time whistle came at the wrong time for St Eunan's, Meehan didn't think it was a factor.

"Naw,  I don't think so. Listen, you're going in 7-3 up against Naomh Conaill, you should be happy. We were happy. We didn't perform in the second half, I don't know what happened. I know Naomh Conaill upped their game. They changed their shape; they were very, very strong at the back and we kinda ran into rabbit holes at times and we got turned over, which we said before the game we weren't going to do.

"Maybe it was because the fact the first half was so open and there was good intensity in our transition and we maybe thought we had more space in the second half and we didn't. But listen, Naomh Conaill were outstanding in the second half and we had to dig deep and we did and thankfully we got the couple of scores to get over the line."

But while his side edged it in the end, Meehan agreed that Naomh Conaill carried the mantle of champions very well.

"Absolutely, they were going for  three in-a-row and you could see the drive in them. They are a fantastic team and I said that during  the week. And just because we beat them tonight takes nothing away from them. And we heard that this Naomh Conaill team is finished. Listen, they are going to be back again because the work they are doing at underage is phenomenal. 

"They have a fantastic minor team this year and a damn good reserve team," said Meehan, who agreed that young Finnbarr Roarty looks an absolute talent.

"They'll not go away. They will be back again next year and hungrier. Anthony Thompson was outstanding and he was causing us a lot of bother in the first half and we had to make changes to deal with that before half-time. Only for him we could have been 7-1 up at half-time," said Meehan.