Drumreilly can live with result as better team won on the day says manager Bryan Whitney

No recriminations, no complaints but certainly pride in his troops, Bryan Whitney feels that his Drumreilly team can live with losing the Fresh Today Junior A Final last Sunday in Ballinamore as he admitted that the better team won, even if the eight point margin flattered Aughvavas.

A philosophical Drumreilly manager admitted his team needed everything to go their way to pull off a shock: “Every lad did something during the game to make it worth their place and the bench contributed so I've no qualms with the lads. The better team won and, as I said, what can you do? You can live with that, you can always live with that.

“I look at small margins - we probably needed everything to go in our favour but even when they got the goal after halftime, we missed two frees, two frees out of three - if we scored them, you don't know. I'm proud of the lads, they're great lads and there's no bitching or there's no blaming going on here. 

“It is a collective effort - we could have all done things differently and you might have had a different outcome. That's the way I look at it. I don't think it's an eight point game, I think eight points is flattering to them, that's being honest. I’ve mentioned the frees and there were a few good scoring chances in the first half we left behind us and you look at a few semi-goal chances we had.”

For Bryan, the missed chances and his team’s own ill-discipline cost them - “There were a few moments I think it changed on us. Discipline really killed us - I just remember one moment where we're on up the field and we take a third man tackle, take a lad out of it. We’re through and that's on us, that's not the referee's fault.

REPORT: GOALS VITAL AS AUGHAVAS SEE OFF BATTLING DRUMREILLY

“There's a few calls I do think the referee might have got wrong on and then that goal at the start of the second half killed us, that just killed us. We never bridged the gap past five points after that and that was it, it was curtains. We did test the full back line with a couple of balls later in the game with Declan and John and Jimmy.

“Some of the lads are saying there should have been penalties - I don't know, they weren't clear cut for me so I could see why they weren't given; so there's not much point whinging about it either. We threw the kitchen sink at them and that's all you can ask but you're chasing it with older legs against young legs and they're a very young team in comparison to us.”

There are regrets with Bryan knowing that the Junior Championship will be much tougher next year with Kiltubrid, Ballinaglera and St Mary’s second string relegated to the grade for 2026: “There's no hard feelings or ill-feeling towards Aughavas, they were the better team and you've got to live and learn. It's just that the Junior Championship becomes tougher next year with the three teams down, probably this was the ideal opportunity to get out of the division.”

But Bryan also sees potential as he sung the praises of his players: “Archie O’Connor wouldn’t come off despite being injured, he’d remind me of the Monty Python character with the limbs gone saying it is only a scratch! Archie is an incredible talent, just a super footballer. I thought Conor Edwards did a very good job on Eanna McNamara - you could see Eanna’s class but I thought Conor manned up very well to him. Stephen Meissner showed flashes, Peter Prior worked great again and you can’t go without mentioning Conor Gaffney.”