Four Masters U-21 coach Kennedy privileged to be working with such talent

Four Masters U-21s continued their journey on Sunday with a comfortable passage to the semi-final with victory over MacCumhaill’s in Tirconaill Park.

A proud Ardara native, but now domiciled and integrated in Four  Masters, John Kennedy is in charge of coaching the Donegal Town side and he is really enjoying the experience.

On Sunday they took a while to get going on the scoreboard but there was never really any doubt about the result from an early stage.

“It was never going to be easy as MacCumhaill’s came here last year and turned us over and we were conscious of that going into the game,” said Kennedy speaking after the game.

“We had to have everybody tuned in and get a performance out of everybody. That was the goal when we went out on the field.

“In fairness to the lads they worked hard in the first half and set the tone by putting pressure on. We had nine wides in the first half and we talked about that at half-time. It was mostly snatching at stuff and poor shot selection.

“They corrected that; they knew that themselves to be fair. I think they were anxious to get into the game and put a wee bit more pressure on themselves than they needed to.

“Look, they came good in the second half,” said Kennedy.

The Twin Towns side were short a few starters but despite that they worked really hard to make it as difficult as possible.

“They worked very hard to keep the score down. You couldn’t take your foot off the pedal. Even when we were bringing in subs, you were anxious not to change the momentum of the game and at the same time you were trying to give players game time.

“We got a few guys in and maybe we could have got a little bit more time into their legs but we will look at that again going forward. We were happy with the result and the way the boys prepared,” he said.

The Donegal Town side have a lot of talent to play with and Kennedy is in the privileged position to have everybody available and fit.

“There is a lot of talent and they are a nice group of lads to work with. They work hard at training and they are anxious to do well and in a sense that makes my job easy from a coaching point of view. Having such a variety of players available and such talent is brilliant,” he said, adding that they also have a hunger for success. 

“Between county guys and boys being called up as well as college football, you can see it in  them. They come home from college on a Friday evening and you are trying to get a balance but you want to have an edge in training.

“The lads are all there and they have been playing with each other for so long now, they are just a good group of lads.”

Before the semi-final (which will be against Naomh Conaill in Ballyshannon on Sunday next) many of the lads will have further college games with Abbey VS having a MacRory Cup game on Wednesday in Garvaghey against St Paul’s, Bessbrook.

Kennedy says that the players are embracing the different levels of football and it is only helping to further enhance what is a very talented bunch.

“You can see all that coming through and the amount of work done at Four Masters over the years, the likes of Pauric Harvey and Rory O’Donnell, they deserve great credit for the group of boys that are out on the pitch.

“It is just constant effort. There is a lot of work going on in the background that people don’t see and it’s paying dividends. I’m at the good end of it but a lot of people put a lot of work into them lads,” said Kennedy, who was looking forward to playing in the semi-final