No excuses offered by Kilcormac/Killoughey manager after County Final loss

KILCORMAC/KILLOUGHEY manager Shane Hand offered no excuses for his side's defeat in Sunday's county final and said the best team on the day won.

He said while his own side had the better of the first 20 minutes, Shinrone dominated the remaining 40 minutes and he congratulated them on their success.

“We are very disappointed,” he said. “Ironically we started the game very well, created numerous goal chances but against a team like Shinrone you can't be missing those goal chances and pucking all those wides and hope to win a game. But being honest, apart from the first 20 minutes when I thought we were well on top, Shinrone were the better team and there are no excuses from Kilcormac/Killoughey. The last 10 minutes of the first half and all the second half Shinrone were far and away the best team and from Kilcormac/Killoughey we want to congratulate them,” the manager said.

“We couldn't have asked for a better start. We were creating loads of chances but there's no point creating chances bar you're going to take them and we didn't take them and we left Shinrone in the game.

“The wides sucked the life out of us and when you miss three good goal chances, and I think we had 12 wides to five in the first half, it does sort of suck the life out of you but in fairness when Shinrone got their chances they took them,” Shane said.

Kilcormac/Killoughey went in two points down at half time and hoped to make a good start to the second half.

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“We looked for a fast start to the second half and it never came and Shinrone got a few points and they looked fresher and they were hungrier and probably like K/K back in 2012 and 2013 they were looking for the first one and they had that extra bit of hunger in the second half and they were first onto the breaking ball and the best team won,” he added.

Kilcormac/Killoughey were thrown a lifeline with Ger Healion's goal but Shinrone hit back straight away with two points.

“That's it, the goal was cancelled out in a minute, they got two quick points and sign of a good team as well. Look, it's disappointing but life goes on,” he said.

Shinrone really clicked into gear in the second half and pulled away. “Someone said to me they scored 22 points from play, so that is an incredible return, so well done to Shinrone,” Shane concluded.