Watty Graham's Glen manager Malachy O'Rourke before the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final match between Watty Graham's Glen of Derry and Kilmacud Crokes of Dublin at Croke Park in Dublin.
By John Harrington
Glen manager, Malachy O’Rourke, admitted losing today’s AIB All-Ireland Club Football Final to Kilmacud Crokes was ‘heart-breaking’.
It was a game of very fine margins and he felt his team didn’t take enough of the chances that came their way.
“Look it you never like using devastation when it comes to football because there's a lot more important things in life,” says O’Rourke.
“It is heart-breaking. Second half we wanted to come out, first half we felt we started well and then we faded off a bit and we didn't play the football we're capable of playing.
“We wanted to make sure that we did that in the second half. I thought the boys really dug in the second half, showed a lot of character, played with a lot of quality as well and we did eke out chances for ourselves and we took some. Unfortunately we didn't take others, that's just the way it goes.”
Glen had a glorious injury-time chance to score what would have been a match-winning goal but Kilmacud’s goalkeeper Conor Ferris produced a stunning one-handed save to tip Conor Glass’s side-footed shot around the ost.
“Conor, he did the right thing he tried to side-foot the ball into the net and in fairness to the keeper, I haven't seen it too many times, he got a finger tip to it and got it around the post, it was a great save by him,” says O’Rourke.
Glen got a lot of things right in the match including holding both Shane Walsh and Paul Mannion scoreless from play, but even that considerable feat wasn’t enough in the final reckoning
“We were always hoping we could do that and the boys did a great job,” says O’Rourke. “Overall the boys put in a great effort, so proud of them the way they came back in the second half, the work they put in.
“It is just very disappointing to come so close. The last minute for the ball to be tipped around the post, it's a tough one to take. But that's football.
“We probably felt we were disappointed in our own performance, we started off well, we gave the ball away a wee bit too much, we weren't playing with the urgency that we would like.
“We felt we could be a lot better in the second half and that's what the aim was in the second half and I thought we did do that all over the field. Just we were a wee bit more aggressive, we were winning a lot of the 50-50 balls and just worked really hard for each other. But look it we just didn't do enough in the end.”
