Ballinamere manager disappointed that they didn't really perform to their ability

BALLINAMERE manager Sean Treacy was very disappointed that his team didn't perform to their ability in Sunday's county final against Kilcormac/Killoughey.

He was proud that they kept fighting to the end and could possibly have snatched a draw when Mike O'Brien's late shot just flew over the crossbar instead of under but in an honest assessment he said their performance probably didn't warrant getting a second chance.

Giving his reaction to the result the Portumna man said “jjust very disappointed. I felt we didn't really perform. Maybe that's credit to K/K, but like 17 points is never going to win a county final.

Now if you told me KK would only score 19, I'd have said we would have been in a great position.

“But there was no flow to the game, it was just stop start all day. Poor hurling to be honest with you. I felt we just didn't really get to the pitch of the game at all until it was too late.

“We got into a bit of a flow at the end, but obviously the clock beat us at the finish. Maybe the last shot could have gone into the net but it went over the bar, but we were clutching at straws really.”

When it was put to him that it was a game that never kind of ignited at any stage Sean said “referees have difficult jobs, but sometimes, to me it seemed to be very stop-start. There were frees on one side, very, very easy frees and nothing on the other side. Maybe I'm looking at it from a biased point of view, but I think speaking to a lot of people afterwards, they would have been of the same opinion as me.”

He agreed that the four points Kilcormac/Killoughey got just before half-time were probably crucial as it gave them a bit of a gap at the break that they were able to maintain. “They're a good team, they're quality players and you're not going to hold their forward line for the whole game. I think our defence did really well to be fair. They're going to score a certain amount and you're trying to limit them to as little as possible. I thought 19 points was a good mark.”

It took Kilcormac/Killoughey 16 minutes before they scored from play, so the Ballinamere manager felt his side were obviously doing a good job.

Ballinamere did keep going to the end and if Mike O'Brien's late shot had gone in they could have been looking at a replay.

“Yeah, look, if it did happen to end up in the net then you could say it was a fair chance. Mike O'Brien was very unlucky, he just skimmed the crossbar and it went over.

“We'd have taken the replay with both hands, there's no doubt about it. I don't think we probably played good enough all through to warrant it.”

When it was put to him that Kilcormac/Killoughey held Ballinamere's big players and kept them out of the game fairly well he replied “Yeah, that would be a fair reflection, yeah. And it wasn't for the want of trying, the lads tried really hard. You get some days you get these things, other days you don't. There was no flow to it at all, even the crowd was kind of dead. And for such a lovely day for that match.

“There'll be a lot of regrets, but you just have to keep going and keep the head up and look at next year,” he concluded.