Naomh Padraig's McCauley says last year's play-off defeat has driven on players

Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin's long trip south to Pettigo on  a wet Saturday evening proved a fruitful one in the end and manager Dan McCauley was able to relax afterwards, especially after their second half display.

"It was a good result in the end. You could see in the first half we were still in the car, but in the second half they came out a lot stronger and it was a great second half."

The Naomh Padraig boss agreed that the conditions and the breeze was against them in the opening half.
"It was a tricky breeze. It was a horrible night, it was wet but we took a few good scores into it. They got some momentum after we got the penalty and they were probably a little disappointed that they didn't go in at half-time a couple of points up."

He agreed that the penalty gave them a cushion in the opening half. "It was a big moment, it was a big relief to get that three points on the board. It was a changing for us for the better I thought, but then we fell away again in the last 10 minutes of the first half and Pettigo, to their credit, got on top."

But the manager then had the luxury to bring in county senior panelist, Caolan McColgan, who had trained with the county on Saturday morning.

"Look, Caolan is a great lad. And in fairness to Caolan, he was sitting there chirping at the bit, wanting on, wanting on. We said we would give him a half or 20 minutes or whatever. He got 25 and he got five points, which was excellent. He changed the game. He is an outstanding young fella. The two changes, in fairness. Caolan and Lee Barr went on. Lee was a big presence on the edge of the square, it changed the dynamic. It swung the momentum in our favour."

Overall, McCauley was very happy with the result. "Mighty happy. As I said to the boys at half-time, if I'm out of here at the end with a one point victory, I'll be happy. But to go out with an 11 point victory, I'm over the moon. Look, it's another box ticked, it's four out of four and that's the plan. We move on next week to Naomh Ultan and see where that takes us.

"So far, so good. The disappointment from last year's play-off defeat to Na Rossa has driven on a lot of these boys. They want to put that right and they have really knuckled down," said McCauley, who also praised the minors who have come in from last year.

"Cormac McColgan came in tonight and he's done fantastic this year since coming into the squad and he's a good player. There are a couple of other minors playing with the reserves and they are knocking on the door as well. So it's a great headache to have."