Cunningham - ‘We cannot leave it all to Patrick McBrearty all the time’

Kilcar manager Conor Cunningham was happy with his side's energy and how his players applied themselves in the first half in their win at Cloughaneely in the Donegal SFC.  

However, the new man calling the shots in Towney felt his charges eased off and got a little sloppy in the second half, although they still won out on a 0-19 to 0-7 scoreline to move onto two wins from two ahead of their third round meeting with Ardara this weekend.

Kilcar led by 10 points 0-13 to 0-3 at half-time before pushing on to close out the game early in the second period. 

“We had the hard work done in the first half,” Cunningham said afterwards.  “The boys were very impressive in the first half. They played with high energy and used the quick direct ball inside to great effect.

“It was probably hard to keep it up for the whole game and that led to us easing back and being a little sloppy at times. But conditions turned slightly in the second half and that was also a faction. But overall we are really happy with the performance, especially away from home.” 

Kilcar had 10 different scorers over the hour and nine of them had hit the target by the 18th minute. 

“We are trying to build a platform where everybody has to have an input in the game,” Cunningham added. “We cannot leave it all  to Patrick McBrearty all the time. 

Maximum points for Kilcar following victory at Cloughaneely

Following on from the beating Milford on the opening weekend of the Donegal SFC, Kilcar continued their winning ways at Cloughaneely

“That has been the plan from the start of the year and it probably makes us more unpredictable to tag. It is all about sharing the workload. We are known as a  running team but we need to have more variation in our play to win this championship. We had that in the first half out there.” 

Kilcar are one of the sides tipped to go all the way in this year’s championship outright and they went into the game as the hot favourites to win against Cloughaneely.  

“You have to show respect and you have to be humble,” Cunningham added. “Cloughaneely beat us in the league and rightly so. They were the better team on the day. They are a Division One team. They won the intermediate last year and there was no way we came down here thinking we were going to win. But once we got off to the good start we had true and utter belief in ourselves to push on and win it.” 

Cunningham ran his bench in the second half and used his full complement of five subs. 

“I was concerned about yellow cards after a couple had been booked and we did not want to lose anyone for next weekend," he added. “Jason Campbell was booked and one and two others so we were concerned about that. But it is important to keep everybody fresh and everyone on their toes as well.”

Two games into the championship Kilcar have bagged two big wins and are already looking at a place in the last eight of the championship. 

“All we can do now is go away and  plan ahead. It is tough on the team and it is hard on all teams with a short turnaround playing again next weekend,” Cunningham added. “It is anything but easy. I put myself under pressure too but I’m enjoying it and at the same time realise in  two weeks’ time we could be out of the championship.”