WHEN Derry met Kerry in a league final some 16 years ago, the two sides had to wait for the Parnell Park pitch to become vacant.
On a stiflingly hot late-April afternoon, Fermanagh and Wexford were proving as inseparable on the field as they had leaving the field at half-time, when they all got stuck in.
The afternoon produced two classic encounters. Wexford had conceded 2-2 in the opening minutes of the game but went on to win after extra-time.
Derry had endured a similarly tough opening. When Darran O’Sullivan netted the Kingdom’s second goal, they led by seven points. They would lose by four.
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For spectators, Parnell Park was perfect. Its compact surroundings held the 13,500 crowd neatly. That was plenty.
For the players, it was a nightmare.
There was nowhere to warm-up. When the Fermanagh game went to extra-time, the Derry and Kerry players found themselves cooped up inside a small changing room, hardly fit to breathe with the heat.
“We’d over 40 guys sitting in one wee room all boiling so they had to go outside and mingle,” said Oak Leaf coach John McCloskey after the game that afternoon.
“You’d the referee changing in the kitchen along with a couple of boys........