Forde looking to push on as a club as St Eunan’s win Intermediate hurling title

It could have been a day to remember for St Eunan’s as a whole had they won the double on hurling finals day in O’Donnell Park.

It wasn’t to be for their first team, who lost out to Setanta by five points, although that side will get to compete in the Ulster Intermediate Club Championship.

But there was still joy on the day as their reserve side defeated Dungloe in the Intermediate final by 0-13 to 0-6, and the numbers and work being put in for both squads show that hurling is getting stronger at the Letterkenny club.

“We had two squads here today and nearly have 50 players in attendance, so it’s class for the club,” forward Gavin Forde said.

“There’s a lot of thanks that has to go to the management, the likes of Paddy Flood, Eugene O’Donnell, Eugene Organ, and Chris McAuley, they’ve put in a real effort in getting numbers in and boys back, and it’s great to see.

“Hopefully we can push on and win a few more titles at both levels of hurling, we want to be at the top.”

Forde top-scored with five points for his side after a slow start, which saw Dungloe go three ahead in the first five minutes.

But the Rosses Park men would only match that tally in the remaining near hour of play as St Eunan’s led by three at the break and continued to increase the lead in a low scoring affair.

When the pair met in the group stage, Dungloe won by three points but St Eunan’s were down numbers that day.

“It was tighter than we hoped, Forde added.

“We did hope that we could blow them away because we knew the numbers we were missing from the last time we played Dungloe.

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“The likes of Steven Doherty, Paul O’Donnell, Pierce Glynn, and Steven Donohue were all missing that day so we had better weaponry on the pitch this time.

“We came out and gave it our all and got over the line.

“You have Adie Gaffey, who isn’t far off from turning 50, then you go down to Brendan Gaffey who is only 19, and those younger boys are really pushing to make that senior team.

“Going into the second half, I felt like we were all over them for a period and every puck out of theirs was coming straight back at them.

“Our forwards, we could have done better with it but we’re happy with the result and outcome.

“Brendan Gaffey was the man of the match, and it was well deserved. We were up in a tournament two weeks ago, and he got man of the match there too.

“It’s brilliant for him and he’s some player, the same goes for Jordan Barr and Steven Donohue, they all got some serious scores there.”