Paudie Murray left puzzled by second half Barrs fade against Glen Rovers

Having finished the opening half with an unanswered four-in-a-row to assume pole position for the first time in proceedings, the momentum generated from such did not sustain after the interval break.

Four points in four minutes regressed to just three points across the entire third quarter. And given two of those came from the stick of midfielder Ethan Twomey, William Buckley’s 39th minute point was the sole scoring contribution of the Barrs attack in the 15 minutes after half-time.

Indeed, a rather damning stat is how Buckley was the sole starting Barrs forward to raise a flag across the entirety of the second half. No county final can be won on those numbers.

Certainly, no county final can be won by the Barrs when Brian Hayes and Ben Cunningham go 34 second-half minutes without hitting the target from play. Mind you, the former was so sparsely used in the finish up, watching helplessly as off-target efforts repeatedly passed in over him.

Their two-point half-time lead had changed to a four-point deficit entering the final quarter. The gap was later five when Eoin O’Leary capitalised on a concentration collapse in the Barrs defence.

In short, it was a second half of too much blue chasing.

“Disappointed with our second half,” Paudie began.

“I thought we were in a really good place at half-time [0-12 to 0-10 in front]. But you'd have to say in the second half we were chasing things a small bit.

“We went in at half-time and all the detail I got from Niall [Collins, analysis] was really positive. Our opening 10 minutes wasn't terrific, but that was down to the way we were using the ball, and we weren't overly happy with that. But once we got going, that 15 minutes before half-time we were dominating, so the disappointing thing is that it didn't continue [after half-time].

“It was a poor second-half. I can't really put my finger on it at the moment. It will be a case of relook and see what went wrong. Goals win games. They got them. We didn't. Probably in the second half, I would have to say they were the better team.

“The sun was probably awkward to play. If we had won the toss, we would have played the opposite way around. They won the toss and elected to play into the sun. I think our second half was really poor and we didn't win enough ball around the middle of the field. It just wasn't sticking in our forward line, really.” 

And yet they were still there in the red. A William Buckley goal effort in the final minute of injury-time would have delivered extra-time. Did Cathal Hickey stop him by legitimate means?

“It was a good bit away from me. It was a chance, but they had their chances as well. I'd have to look at it again, really,” Murray replied.

“We are going home really, really disappointed.”