The Corkman, October 9, 2003

As has been the case all season, Newtown coach Ger Cunningham wasn't totally satisfied with his side's display last Sunday at Pairc Ui Chaoimh where they edged out Sarsfields at the second attempt to qualify for the permanent tsb county senior hurling final.

The result means that Newtown have gone five championship games with­out defeat since Cunningham, assistant coach to Tom Ryan last year, took the helm. But Cunningham insists that Newtown's form over the two games with Sars will have to be improved upon if they hope to avenge the loss to Blackrock in last year's decider.

"I wasn't happy with our overall performance today, and we will need to raise our game considerably when we take on Blackrock. "We haven't played to our peak all year, but we will work on it during the week, and hopefully, we will be able to perform to our full potential next Sunday. "Blackrock are an outstanding team, they have quality players in every line, and we know that we are going to find it very hard to topple them."

Cunningham revealed that he was pleased with his side's bright start, but he was disappointed that they allowed Sars back into it before half time. "Fair play to Sars, they showed great character to come back, but I felt we should have finished them off after we raced into a six point lead in the first quarter. “They continued to come at us strongly early in the second half and I suppose we were lucky that they missed a few chances to go ahead. “But we expected Sars to make a huge effort to build on their strong finish in the first half and we made up our minds at half time to put them under pressure whenever they got into scoreable positions.

"Once we did that, it meant they were forced to shoot from about 40 to 50 yards out into the wind, and, thankfully, they didn't get the scores that could have unsettled us. "Our midfield fell apart a bit in the second half, but the changes we made brought results, and it was particularly satisfying that the four players we called up from the bench did a good job for us.

"It was close all the way in the second half, but we showed the little bit of killer instinct to take our opportunities when it really mattered near the end," said Cunnigham, who singled out minor player James Bowles for special mention. "It was great to see James taking on responsibility and earning rspect at 18 years of age, and I think it gave the rest of the team a boost when the crunch came. "I was happy enough with our workrate over the hour, but the bottom line is that we didn't play as well as we can, and I have to say that it has been the same story in all of our games so far this year.

"But I know that there is a big game in this team, and maybe it will be a case of saving the best wine until last when we face up to the Rockies on Sunday," concluded the Newtown boss.