U21 football: Douglas target improvement for final

While happy to be 60 minutes away from a second county U21AFC title, Douglas will be targeting improvement from Sunday’s semi-final win over Beara as they gear up to take on Ibane Gaels.

A 2-14 to 0-10 win in Macroom followed on from the quarter-final victory over Ballincollig. Douglas benefited from a good start, but manager Conor Buckley felt that the dropping of their levels allowed Beara back into the contest and similar will not suffice against the Argideen Rangers/Barryroe combination.

“Certainly in a couple of areas,” he said.

“When we had momentum, we scored but then, all of a sudden, we took our foot off the gas and left them back into the thing and we were punished, which is what teams will do to you.

“It got us over the line on Sunday but that won't get us over the line in the final, because people want it more in a final.”

Apart from injured captain David Buckley, Douglas have a full deck to work with, though management have been cognisant of other commitments and have not sought to over-work them, either in the period since winning the city title or in between the county games.

“We didn't train them very hard during the week,” Buckley said, “we had one session, we had two get-togethers, one on the pitch and one off the pitch.

“They're all hurling, they're between hurling and senior football, junior football, schools and colleges.

“We wouldn't put the foot down with them to not play with any other teams. The more games they play, the better. They're a good bunch, you'd just be hoping they wouldn't get injured, obviously - but you could get injured coming down the stairs.”

Another light week looms, with the main focus on getting the heads right for the decider.

“Well, it's a big thing,” Buckley said.

“It's a test for us, it's a test of our mentality which has been tested all along.

“The proof of the pudding will be after the 60 minutes next week.”