There haven’t been too many games Fermanagh manager CJ McGourty has been involved in that have delivered 10 goals but on Sunday that’s exactly what materialised against Kilkenny and thankfully it was his team that was the one rattling the ‘onion bag’.
It might not have produced much in terms of learning for the Erne ladies but McGourty used it as an opportunity to tweak a few things such as kickouts and shooting. He also used it as a chance to give game time to a few players and rest a few others, but admits there were “no real questions asked” of his side.
“It was good that it actually fell when it did because we’re carrying knocks and I rested eight or nine players – left them at home, to be honest with you. We went with a panel of 20 players. I didn’t want to bring people down and not play them on the long trip, so, we left them at home so that they’ll come back refreshed this week.
“We went down expecting to win, yes, but we know that football can turn up a lot of things on any given day but we got the job done early and it allows us to use different players in different roles.”
Two key players that did make the trip to Kilkenny were Bláithín Bogue and Eimear Smyth, racking up 4-5 between them.
“Eimear was at Arsenal v Man United at the weekend, so she flew into Dublin, so she was already half way down the road and I suppose she’s top-scorer in the league and not that it means much, but it’s nice to pick up individual accoldaes when they’re going – so I was aware of that – I also knew she’d probably get a lot of practice on her frees and on her shooting, so I thought I’d bring her for 40 or 50 minutes when she was already half way down the road,” explained McGourty.
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