It’s no coincidence the Derry team of the early 1990s were so successful. A squad of driven men, hungry for success and relentless in their efforts. The spirit of messrs Scullion and Barton is rubbing off on the current Derry team.
 |
| Enda Gormley PIC - Teamtalkmag.com |
On Sunday in Creggan another of that squad, Enda Gormley was in full flow, constantly cajoling his young Glen team.
The underage revolution in Glen is coming to the advanced stage and the transition from minor to senior is next on the cards. After a brief spell Gormley has returned as Glen senior manager to oversee this progression.
With Sunday’s game very much in the bag Gormley was still demanding more from his team and wing back Cathal Mulholland points out that this Glen team are motivated by more than results.
“We said at half time ‘we’ll start off 0-0 again and go out and try and win the second half’. That’s what we tried to do, it’s all about performance.”
Glen struggled in the early stages and Mulholland felt they were guilty of not taking the correct options. “We maybe tried a bit too much for goals after that. We could’ve been doing with taking a few points but sure goals win games at the end of the day.”
Mulholland captained one of Glen’s Ulster Minor winning teams and is standing clutching his man of the match award for Sunday’s win over Magheracloone. He is complementary towards the Creggan tournament.
“I like it personally it as a tournament. It’s well run and good for the team. It’s good at this time of year to get a bit of football, it stands you in good stead for the rest of the year in the seniors.”
Speaking after the game Enda Gormley acknowledged the early missed chances but put a positive spin on it. “Both teams found it much trickier to play into this end [scoreboard end] with the underfoot conditions a wee bit heavy after the match yesterday.”
“But we created opportunities and that’s the big thing. If you start creating then I’m confident enough they’ll come and to be fair we kept doing it. We scored the three goals.”
When they meet up this week, Gormley and Glen camp will look to address their scoring ratio and their slow starts. “We only got the five scores in the first half, plenty to work on but when you are creating them, that’s the main thing.”
Let’s face it, Glen were not fully tested and the game was over as a contest long before Sean Laverty’s final whistle. Gormley has set the focus ahead of next week.
“It’s [The St John’s challenge] totally different. Every team has it’s own personality and it’s own uniqueness. Us and St John’s know each other, we have played each other a few times between the Ulster Minor and here last year.”
“They are a much bigger and physical team than Magheracloone and are bigger than us. It’s a totally different challenge. We’ll have to see how do we counter their strengths and see is there anywhere we hit them with our strengths.”
In many quarters the debate arises about too many games. We asked the Glen boss how the U21 campaign fits into the preparations for the senior league.
“There is no other time for it, that’s the time we want to play it. Most counties only run their club U21 at the end of the senior season and I don’t see a place in the calendar for it.”
“Listen, there are positives and negatives. You’d want to be doing a bit more heavy preseason work which is sort of held back but at the same time you’re getting competitive football. I suppose we are lucky that our U21s is such a big part of our senior squad.”
At the minute it is very much a balancing act on the training pitch meeting the needs of senior preseason and accommodation the U21 preparation. “We work together most of the time but then building up to this match for a very short period of time they’d do some sessions on their own.”
“You obviously have to change what they are doing but they are getting the benefit of this too in that we are getting of football but after next Sunday we will be all the one.”
From a conversation I had with the Glen boss a few years ago when he became involved in the Glen underage scene, initially he planned to give one night a week to lend a hand. Men like Gormley don’t lend a hand. There are no half measures. It simply isn’t in their DNA.
With Glen cruising to last Sunday’s win he was urging this charges to give more. Therein lies the character of a competitor. As these young guns head off into the real world of senior football, they won’t need to look to far for drive. It’s standing in the middle of their dressing room floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment