Kilcoo boss Karl Lacey has no fear that his side may have peaked too early or shown their hand in the semi-final demolition of Scotstown as their approach Sunday’s Ulster Club Football Final against Errigal Ciaran.
A Scotstown side replete with Monaghan county stars past and present defeated Kilcoo by a point in last year’s Ulster quarter-final and no one predicted the 2022 All-Ireland champions’ 5-10 to 0-14 victory margin a fortnight ago.
In contrast, Errigal Ciaran needed a stunning individual display by Ruairi Canavan to edge a 0-14 to 1-10 semi-final win over a Clann Eireann side that had looked to be taking control prior to Tiernan Kelly’s 40th-minute sending off.
History shows that many unimpressive semi-final wins are followed by final triumphs, but former Donegal All-Star Lacey doesn’t buy in to that kind of media chatter.
“It’s probably irrelevant to us as a group. As a player you hide yourself away from all that,” Lacey told BBC Sport NI.
“I’m not just saying that. It is reality. Players don’t need management to put their feet back on the ground. They do that themselves. After the final whistle, we regrouped. We got our huddle, we had our stretch. We had our wee talk.
“By the time the boys got home, that game was blanked and they were looking forward to the next one and ready to go again. That’s just the reality of it.”
