By Brendan McTaggart
Donal ‘Natty’ McNaughton is one of the most under-rated stars of the Ruairi Og’s. It was his introduction in the first match against St Johns that helped to turn the tide for Cushendall while starring in the replay. On Sunday he put in another gargantuan performance.
The relief, joy and ecstasy was clearly visible as the 33 year old stood for photographs with his three children holding the Volunteer Cup. The Ruairi Og forward gave us his initial thoughts on his side reclaiming the Antrim championship on Sunday: “I thought the whistle would never blow.
“We got a good start but we seemed to hit a lull. In the end up it was tit for tat to get over the line.
“It was another gritty and determined performance.”
The easiest commodity carried in sport is momentum. Once a team have it, they become hard to stop. When a team like Cushendall have that, you get an end result like Sunday. Natty gave us his thoughts: “We got on a good roll from the St John’s games and the momentum kept going. We never say die and we kept fighting. There was no big scores out there today, it was a battling performance.
“That’s what you look for. Big heavy challenging matches, it keeps you going. It keeps the momentum going and I know they got a break and Loughgiel said they were happy with the extra week but I wouldn’t look at it that way. I’d rather play through the niggle with the momentum. Winning gets rid of niggles better than any week off.”
Natty was too hot for the Loughgiel defence to handle in the opening half on Sunday, scoring three points from three shots in the opening 30 minutes while in the second half he put in another monumental performance, covering every inch of the Páirc MacUílín pitch tackling, chasing, harassing and doing whatever it took to get his team over the line. Natty added: “I had it in my head before the game but the main one was composure. If I did get the chance I had to be sure, be clinical. I think I had three shots and three scores, I had to make sure any of the chances I got I stuck them over.”
The swing in momentum from Cushendall’s first goal was game defining. It gave the Ruairi’s the lead for the first time in the final at a time when Loughgiel were starting to find their rhythm. Natty agreed that their first major came at an opportune time, although from the most unlikely of sources as he joked wondering why his captain was 80 yards out of position: “We said the same thing in the St Johns game. He went into block a ball to get a goal but we’ll not hear the end of this from Paddy Burke now.”
Cushendall now prepare for an Ulster final meeting with Down champions Ballycran. Natty commented on the ‘Cran’s result over Slaughtneil when adding: “That’s a big, big result for Ballycran and fair play to them but we weren’t looking any further than this match today. We literally take one game at a time. We looked at Loughgiel, we won today and we’ll celebrate but we’ll regroup and come back to get a look at Ballycran.”
McNaughton had been contemplating retirement at the end of last season and refused to comment if he would be around the Ruairi’s squad to add to his healthy collection of six Antrim championships: “I don’t know, that’s up for debate but I’ll enjoy this one for now.”