O’Meara lauds peak performance

Kiladangan manager John O’Meara was pleased with the level of performance his side brought to Sunday’s semi-final win over Toomevara in which they scored 32 times, and posting just three wides, in a clinical display.

“We did target a good performance today and I’m thrilled we got it,” said the Sixmilebridge native.

“From the word go we really went after the game. We shot into a six or a seven point lead at one stage, but typical Toome, it was never going to be easy, they made us fight all the way.

“On 52 minutes we were five up and Darragh (Egan) brought off a great save which was a massive turning point in the game.

“We are thrilled to be in the final and back training this week and getting to work on the areas we need to improve on for two weeks time.”

The nine-point margin of victory is a false indication of the competitiveness of the game with Toome right in it until the closing stages but it was Kiladangan’s experience and drive, particularly when down to fourteen men, for the final twenty minutes or so which proved crucial.

“We are lucky that the team are around a long time, and are experienced, and are able to cope with adversity,” O’Meara added.

“We possibly did get better after the red card and we got the scores, the extra space did help in attack, there is no doubt about that, Billy (Seymour), Paul (Flynn) and Sean (Hayes) really came into their own.

“We did deal with it really well. It is unusual to see a goalkeeper being put off, but we are lucky enough that we dealt with it very quickly. Darragh has manned the post for a long number of years for various teams so there were no concerns there.”