Scotland Head Coach McNeil Delighted With Shinty Showcase. | |
31 October 2010 Scotland Head Coach Drew McNeil was delighted that his players showcased their shinty talents in the thrilling (2-15) 21-22 (2-16) victory over Ireland at Croke Park on Saturday 30 October 2010. “It’s massive to win here at Croke Park,” said a delighted Scotland Head Coach Drew McNeil. “I was really keen that we came here and showcased the game of shinty. I wanted to impose our shinty style on the game as it’s our sport and I believe it has so much to offer. I’ve been banging on about this game being a better spectacle than its football counter-part and I’ve not met too many people here this weekend who have disagreed.” It would have been easy for the Scots to have buckled after the home side made a devastating start to the match. “You have to say that the Irish made a fair start to the game and they were 5-0 up before we really got going. The Irish have improved their ground play and I believe this is something they have been working on.” McNeil always knew where the main Irish goal threat lay but stopping Shaun Dooley was never going to be easy. He said, “Shaun Dooley was the second top scorer in Ireland this past year. He was Ireland’s main goal threat in Inverness last year and he was a danger throughout today’s game. The Irish make it difficult for our defenders to clear the ball as they are good at closing down our back line and getting their arms around our defenders to prevent them from playing the ball further up the park but that is something we can work on over the next fortnight.” “The rolling substitutions worked really well for us today,” said McNeil, “and every player we added onto the park brought something positive to the game.” The Scot’s suffered a scare early in the game when captain Gary Innes took a nasty blow to the face. “Gary took a sore one right enough,” said McNeil. “He got a couple of stitches to his nose and it won’t look pretty in a few hours’ time with a couple of black eyes likely to appear but it is Halloween after all!” The Scotland Head Coach was a little disappointed to emerge from this clash with just a single point advantage. He is also well aware of the task that lies ahead in Inverness on 13 November 2010 and you sense a steely determination to see the job done with his talented group of players. |