Erin's Own delighted to seal semi-final spot but know they have work to do

Erin’s Own manager Brendan O’Riordan admitted his side showed signs of complacency despite securing a 3-16 to 0-19 victory over Fermoy that booked their place in the Co-Op Superstores SAHC semi-finals.

The East Cork side completed a perfect group campaign with three wins from three, but they were pushed all the way by a Fermoy team fighting to avoid the relegation play-off.

While a pair of injury-time goals eventually put a gloss on the scoreboard, O’Riordan felt his players made harder work of the contest than they should have.

“Yeah, we had a small bit of extra class, I think, in the forwards and it showed,” he said afterwards.

“We made hard work of it, but Fermoy had a lot more to play for than we did, and I think it showed in the performance from us.

“We spoke all week about complacency, but there was a bit of complacency there. A win is a win though and, really, the competition only starts in four weeks’ time for us.”

The reward for topping the group is a semi-final spot, avoiding the potential pitfalls of a quarter-final tie.

O’Riordan believes the break will provide a valuable opportunity to sharpen up aspects of their game that were exposed by Fermoy, who drew level entering injury-time before Erin’s Own finished with a flourish.

“It’s good not to get it too easy because we have an awful lot to work on now based on today’s performance,” he said.

“Going straight to the semi-final, you avoid an additional trip hazard on the way and that’s what we spoke about during the week. We wanted to go straight to the semi and we’ve done that.”

Battle

Having trailed by a point at half-time, Erin’s Own appeared to have taken control when Robbie O’Flynn blasted home a second-half goal.

However, Fermoy roared back and drew level in the 60th minute, only for Finn O’Brien and Oran O’Regan to raise green flags deep into stoppage time to settle it as they won by 3-16 to 0-19.

For O’Riordan, those goals highlighted the difference between the teams.

“Goals do create separation between teams rather than points going back and forth,” he said. 

Even the last two goals we got, we just had that extra little bit of firepower to close it out.”

The dramatic finish also showcased the determination running through the Erin’s Own side, with players continuing to drive forward from all areas of the pitch when the result was still in the balance.

Centre-back O’Regan’s late goal typified that commitment.

“Exactly. Even Finn O’Brien was back there doing a lot of hard tackling and trying to win the ball back and turn it over,” O’Riordan said. “And as you said, Oran O’Regan went straight all the way through. It shows real commitment.”

O’Riordan said he had paid no attention to developments elsewhere while focusing on navigating the group stages.

“As I said during the week, I wasn’t even looking at the other groups because I just wanted to stay focused on this one,” he said.

“We’ll have a look at the other groups now and see who we could potentially be up against and take it from there.”