Townsend made sure Bennekerry/Tinryland players kept their focus

While the thought of playing in Croke Park had to be on everyone’s minds, they still knew that if they didn’t mind themselves, the team would lose focus and let their ambitions override what had to be done.

“Someone asked me about Croke Park there now but it was never on our minds,” said the winning manager, Chris Townsend.

“All we were doing was concentrating on winning today. If you look too far ahead, that is when you are going to get caught. We just knew we had to get over today’s game which was always going to be a battle up here. They are a tough and a really physical team. A vocal home crowd as well. If we could get over that, then whatever was going to happen was going to happen. Now we can look forward to Croke Park which is brilliant,” he confirmed.

The game took its course. The players responded and this pleased Townsend as much as anything else.

“We knew we were up against a strong breeze. We knew we had to be in the game at half-time. That is what we did. It was level so we were in the game. You don’t want to get more scores but it was a level game. We were in the game,” he said.

Not having to chase a game was huge for the team. The eventual winners had played against the wind in the first half. Yet everyone was aware that was only going to take you so far.

“We knew whatever happened, we felt we had more in us than we showed in the first half. They got the crowd behind them and our supporters got behind us. That is the ebb and flow of a game. They got three points in a row to bring them level coming up to half-time but we were never worried. We knew we would be able to get going at some stage. A breeze in your favour will never win you a game but we knew if we kept going we could do it.”