Shield Shine The Light

Saturday was all about the first game and thus getting the first performance of the day right. Everything in the build to the Benelux 3rd Round in Brussels was focussed on that.

I would not be there to see it but had no shortage of lads lined up for text updates.

Despite a fairly impressive 14hr drinking session at a buddies wedding on the Friday, I managed to wake up in time for the first game (around 08h30 Irish time). The phone was quiet though. Even well after the game was scheduled to finish there was still nothing. Of course, there could have been a delay but my senses were telling me it wasn't good.

Eventually the news of the two point defeat came through. Despondent barely does justice to how I felt. With a bad start, it was hard to see how we could rescue the situation as we had failed to recover on all the previous occasions this year. I was almost definitely done.

Shortly afterwards, news came in of a win for our Shield 'Grey' team, against Amsterdam. This provided some solace. From that point on, we went on a good news streak. The Championship team put The Hague to bed and followed up with a win against Lux, which was effectively a semi-final.

All along, the Shield 'Greys' were motoring towards a final. In the same competition, we had entered a Shield 'Hoops' team. It's not the first time we have entered three teams but it has become more difficult to drum up the numbers in recent times. Still, it was worth the perseverance to get some of the regular trainers more game time. By all accounts the team dug in and certainly didn't just turn up to make up the numbers.

Back in the Shield final, Dusseldorf were testing the 'Greys' resolve. However, led by their Captain Johnny Phelan and debutant Fergal Ellis, they powered through to take the men's football's first trophy of the season.

The closing game of the day for the men would be the Championship final, again against Amsterdam. The updates were more regular at this stage and were looking good. With five minutes remaining we led by four points. Texts started crossing and becoming confusing which suggested a certain amount of panic had set in. What was clear was the gap was closing. Finally, with the last kick of the day, Amsterdam pointed a placed ball from distance to finish off what they will remember and describe as a famous comeback.

The players were gutted by all accounts and I certainly couldn't have been more disappointed even if I was playing. In fact, I still feel as bad today as I did on Saturday. I can never remember us blowing a lead like that.

The lads have recovered more quickly and the talk is all positive now. In fairness, there is very little b1tching in the group and I am probably the one who makes the most cutting of assessments. I hope it has left a scar on the lads that they won't forget. I think it has. Manage the balance between being positive and ruthlessly assessing one’s performance is difficult to do but it needs doing by everybody.

That’s for the coming weeks.
For now, pride of place goes to our Shield team and they are now in with a shot of lifting the overall Benelux Shield in Maastricht at the end of July.

A big pat on the back must go to Ross, Conor Mul, Conor Mescall, Al Rowan and Gav Flynn. All were injured but did a magnificent job of managing all three teams on the day, with the help of their captains of course.

Overall it wasn't a bad day and if we learn from our mistakes and continue to improve then we should be in the shake-up in Maastricht. Our current group doesn't have an 'x-factor' player that some of our opponents have so we need to close the gap in other ways. Whether we can do that or not remains in the players hands. If they train well, listen and learn, then maybe the despondency won't be long disappearing.