A goal in the final minute snatched victory for Paris in the Copenhagen tournament last Saturday.The importance of it is more then relevant to us as a victory for the Dutch outfit would have placed one of their hands on the trophy which we grasped last year. Instead, it's all to play for and if we can finish this season as we finished last, then we will retain the Championship.
Of course it would have been a whole lot easier if we had showed better on Saturday. A text from Eoghan Kelly on Thursday night confirmed a recurrence of a shoulder injury which was a further unwanted headache. Still, we all got to the Nordic town in one piece. Hotel, grub etc and then bed.
Our plans took a further blow on Saturday morning when two of the travelling squad could not be found. The B team had to depart minus them which meant they needed to pull down 2 A's and caused issues in juggling the squads for the day. It is the first time such a thing has happened on our journeys and it will be the last.
The B's played gallantly (and not in a patronising way) against Amsterdam in the first game. My memory is sketchy but i recall Bull and Bobby tackling tenaciously in defence. Alan Rowan won a good share of deliveries into the full forward line and their graft kept Duffy's men in it for long periods. Ultimately though they succumbed but not without putting up serious resistence. Malmo were next up and the Nordic Region Champions proved too good for the stretched squad. Still, they stuck to their guns and gave Guernsey a good tonking in the 5/6 playoff. Player Manager Conan MacOscar put the finishing touches to a Donal Costello pass to get the final goal.
The A's faced up against Den Hague first and were thankful to Eoghan Kelly who agreed to line out, strapped and nurofened up. They hit us with a goal in the first minute but in fairness we were not rattled. Again, the details are sketchy but Olof, Rochey and Hudson were definitly to the fore. It was still game on until about 10 minutes to go when they pounced on some errors to kill us with 2 goals. Our lack of scoring forwards, myself included, meant we struggled to put a dent in their rearguard.
One of the biggest improvements we have made this year is to put defeats behind us and plough on. Our attitude was good against Den Hague but our football riddled with errors. We hoped to put that right against Paris in a game where we knew the gale force breeze would be a factor. We lost the toss so had to play against it. Paris have only beaten us once though and in recent encounters I could feel their intent to correct that.
They got their way on Saturday. A mixure of fortuitious scores and some glorious ones gave them a 7 point half time lead. Given the severity of the wind I had no doubt victory was still within our grasp. At times, in both halves, we played some great football, moving the ball from one end to the other with great pace. Our opponents' goal was under attack for virtually the whole second half but they did find gaps on occassion and kept topping up their lead with the odd point.
As the minutes ticked towards the end, I was the victim of a great last ditch block, just before slipping a ball past the wrong side of the post. Giller, Byrno and others had their chances too. Credit to the Paris defence who didn't budge.
What stuck out on the day was that the lads who haven't been training were off the pace. Normally I plough through the simple stuff and keep the ball moving but yesterday my grasp of those simple skills deserted me and i took all the wrong decisions. Keary, who between work, injury and holiday has barely trained since March, told me on Saturday night that he was ashamed of his performance. Maybe a little harsh but I'm sure it echoes many of our on thoughts on our play.
Paris winning opens it up again and I really believe if we get everyone fit, coupled with the return of Eoin, Emmett, Enda, Paul and others, then we'll be right up there. I'm certainly going to get my act together and get the lifestyle in check and try and give it a good rattle. Because of the committment required in terms of travel and the transient nature of our populations, its very difficult to retain the title. It hasn't been done in recent times in the men's anyway. And the other thing that hasn't been done is the double. With the hurling in the bag and enough Corkmen in the club who know what winning doubles is all about, this could be the year.
One other little story to mention is that 4 Stockholm lads joined our teams this weekend. They're trying to get a team going up there and this was their first weekend away. Colin, Mark and Paul....or Paul, Mark and Colin?! Once we nailed the names, we all got on like a house on fire. Colin lived with a buddy from Kinsale, Conor, who gets the odd notable mention in some of the blogs. Small world. They were great additions and if we had sprung them for the Paris game we would have won, no doubt. Hopefully, we'll see a bit more of them before the year is out.
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