Enniskillen Manager Simon Bradley said he was left ‘frustrated’ by his side’s first-half performance as they were knocked out of the Ulster Club SFC by reigning champions Kilcoo last Saturday.

The Gaels struggled to make any impact in the first 30 minutes playing against the breeze, and Bradley says the players know they are better than they showed in that half.

“It was very frustrating. We didn’t bring what we were doing on the training ground to the pitch in the first half and the players are frustrated as well because they know they are better than that,” he said.

While his side struggled in the first half, Bradley feels that it was only in the last four minutes of the half that the game got away from the Gaels as Kilcoo hit a late 1-04 without reply.

“The last four minutes completely changed the whole tone of the game because it was a seven- or eight-point wind, and we were confident with Eoin [Beacom] coming on for the second half that we would be able to cause them problems, both in the middle of the pitch and further up, but we were 13 points down at half time and it was too much.

“In fairness to Kilcoo, they probably took the foot off the gas a wee bit too.

“I was happy though that we didn’t lie down and we said that to the players at half time; we said that what they did over the next 30 minutes would set the tone for this team for the foreseeable future.”

Bradley felt that the decision to hold Beacom back until the second half was correct. Beacom came on and scored 1-03 after half time.

“Eoin Beacom is only capable of playing 30 minutes, and Eoin knows himself, and has said to me, that he needs to up his level of physical fitness in order to play at that level for the full 60 minutes, and I look forward to seeing a much fitter Eoin Beacom next year,” he said.

Won the toss

Bradley had won the toss before the game and opted to play against the wind – a decision he says he wouldn’t change.

“I’ve had that thrown at me a couple of times but no, I wouldn’t have changed it.

“I have watched the video back a few times, and with 17 or 18 minutes gone, Kilcoo had only three scores on the board, and if we had gone in 1-05 or even 1-06 to a couple of points down, we would have been happy.

“We just didn’t do what Cargin did in the first half against Glen – they gave an exhibition of keeping the ball against the breeze, and we just felt that the best time to beat Kilcoo for us was going to be in the last 15 minutes.

“I don’t think we would have scored enough, going into the breeze in the second half,” he added.

Kilcoo were impressive on the night and Bradley felt that it was the perfect illustration of how mistakes will be punished at this level of football, with both goals coming from errors.

“They [Kilcoo] were lethal – they took every single advantage of our mistakes.

“They got 2-03 direct from turnovers and another two points from poor kick-outs, so they got 2-05 of that 2-08 in the first half via our poor play, and when you do that at Ulster Club at any level – let alone the semi-final against the All-Ireland champions – you are going to be punished.”

But Bradley believes that Enniskillen are moving in the right direction, yet knows that there is a lot more work to be done if they are to get back to this stage in the future.

“What we’ll take from this as a management team is belief that we are on the right path, which is important.

“When we sat down at the start of the year and set our target, it wasn’t any particular cup or anything else, it was that we wanted to close the gap on Derrygonnelly.

“We had to close the gap physically with our players, so we hit our number-one target, but now having experienced what we have experienced in the Ulster Club, we now know that there is a whole other level of fitness required.

“The players absolutely recognise that, so if they want to continue to play at that level they are going to have to make a serious commitment to do so, and that is a question that they will have to answer on an individual basis, and then on a collective one.

“Where we are at at the minute is not good enough to be consistently coming out of your own county, let alone to be a competitive team within Ulster in quarter-finals and semi-finals.

“At the end of this year, we again know exactly where we are in terms of where we want to be, and we will see if the players want to ‘keep pushing’.”

And he stresses that the main focus will be on trying to hold on to the New York Cup next year and if they are to be successful in that, then they will have to start back to work shortly.

“The Championship was brilliant to win, but we know how difficult it was to win and we know how difficult it will be to retain it next year and that will be our focus.

“But, like any team who has any ambition of going any further, we have got to do the groundwork in the next three or four months,” he commented