Seamus Moynihan and Pat Flanagan bringing Kerry education to Naomh Abán

Fourteen points is a margin that would ordinarily bring deep concern for the team on the beating end, not satisfaction.

But, with last season’s Tom Creedon Cup campaign finishing up at the end of February this year, Naomh Abán boss Jimmy Allen was more than satisfied with the opportunity to see his team beaten comfortably by Knocknagree.

It was the first competitive outing for the club since bringing in high profile Kerry men Seamus Moynihan and Pat Flanagan to the management team, and their effect has been felt immediately, even in a defeat.

“They're after bringing a total level of football that we didn't have before,” Allen began. “Cork football in the past 10 or 15 years, has been back passing and going sideways and backwards.

“Now we're learning to kick a ball. And we have the players for that.

“We did a lot of it tonight, you could see what they're doing to the team. But we have a long way to go. There's no one getting carried away, we have a long way to go.

Knocknagree are a premier senior team now, and for a spell of ten minutes before half-time, they made that gap between senior and intermediate brutally clear, as they kicked five two-pointers in a row.

“We're delighted with that game. We missed two goal chances, [but] the two-pointers killed us. 

“I know we were beaten fairly handily in the finish,” Allen admitted. “But we brought in a lot of young fellas into it. We're blooding young fellas and we had a lot of fellas out with injuring as well.

“We were missing eight of our starting team against Aghabullogue [last year] there tonight, so that's what we had.

“I suppose the first 20 minutes, we were 50/50. It was very fast paced in the first 20 minutes, 25 minutes.

“They started hooking on a few two-pointers, five in a row before half-time. So that kind of put the distance between the two teams,” he explained. I suppose in the second half, then, we came out and we were dictating the play a small bit in the first 10 minutes, we missed a goal chance.

“But it was a great learning curve for us. Knocknagree are a senior team now. There was a big difference, you could see it. Physique, their footballing skills, everything. We have a long way to go, but we're looking forward to it.

“The scoreboard doesn't give a real reflection on the game, but having said that, it is a lesson that we have to learn. We have to get out and we have to stop the two-pointers. We sat back a bit too deep. And we paid the penalty for it, but a lesson learned.” 

A fourteen-point defeat, but plenty of things that the Gaeltacht club can learn from. Plenty of things Moynihan and Flanagan can get to work on before the start of the league.