Today was the semi final of the EA Cup against Limerick. The day was fairly casual and laid back. Got a few things done around the house, read a bit of my book, but mostly just relaxed. The boys dropped me off at the stadium as they headed to the hotel for the pre match stuff. I was pretty early, but eventually others that were doing extra work before the game showed up. We did our rolling out and then he youth team coach had set up some speed and power exercises on the training ground for us. After a warm up we were straight into it. The work was tough, short, sharp explosive sprinting and turning. I was certainly blowing, but it was needed thats for sure. Our work was done and we headed in for a shower.

The team had warmed up, got their last little pep talk and then headed out for the game. We grabbed a cup of tea and then headed into the stands. It was a frustrating game to watch. Yes, Limerick are in the league below Derry, however they only got relegated last year and are right in line for promotion this year, so they were a bad side at all.

Derry tried to put them under pressure but it just wasn’t cohesive enough and they were able to break us down too often. They scored fairly early in the first half and that is how it stayed. Both teams had good opportunities to score more but both keepers made some excellent saves.

Limericks keeper, Freddy Hall, graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2010, so we had a connection. I was able to grab him before he got back on the bus and we had a quick chat which was good. Very nice down to earth guy.

 

We headed for home finally to get some much needed sleep.