"They just don't know how to lose a game" says St Mary's manager Alan Flynn

With celebrations going on all around, it is fair to say that St Mary’s manager Alan Flynn was a happy man after his team’s victory over St Kiernan’s last Saturday.

“What a way to win a game! We don’t do it easy,” said Alan after St Mary’s grabbed two injury time goals to seal a 3-8 to 1-8 victory but their manager spoke of the inspiration of his team’s county final victory, adding “There’s a lot of similarities with the county final. For a young team they’re showing huge resilience.

Two left standing as St Mary's & Aughnasheelin bid for Connacht glory

“Everyone’s talking about how young they are and they are very young.  We’ve a lot of guys who are 22 and under. They just don’t know how to lose a game. We all lose in life, but if that’s going to happen, these guys are going to go down fighting. 

“They dug it out again today. Midway through the second half we were giving the ball away, but we just kept at it.”

Alan was happy for the large St Mary's support who travelled to the game: “You can see how happy the supporters are - it’s fantastic. I’m delighted for all the people there who travelled over. They’re all the family and friends of the players, and they’re just enjoying the journey.”

Late injury time goal blast sees St Mary's through St Kiernan's scare in Ruislip

ST KIERNAN'S 1-8 ST MARY'S KILTOGHERT 3-8

Alan revealed that he and his management team have worked on various scenarios: “We talk about chipping away, chipping away at situations. And that’s exactly what we did again today.

“In the county final we were five points down with maybe 18 minutes to go, and after the game we spoke about how physiologically four points, three points feels so much different. It was the same again today. We weren’t in control of the game and certainly weren’t playing that well, but they stay there.

“The substitutions really made a big difference - David O’Connell kicked a point. Jack Barnes came in and made a difference. They all contributed and that’s what we knew we were going to need.”

St Mary’s now face a Semi-Final on Saturday: “We’re in a Connacht semi-final and we’re getting ready for Tourlestrane who are seven time Sligo champions, so they’re well used to this. We’ll have to improve a good bit, but one thing, rest assured, is that they will go to the bitter end and that gives us a lot of confidence.

“These boys are buzzing now; if you’ve won a county championship for the first time in nine years, for a lot of them their first medal. They’re flying over here as a group and nearly feeling professional for the weekend and then they’re getting ready for a Connacht semi-final, sure you’ll take it. 

Shock & Awe with late match winning goals

THE LAST POINT

“We’ll be underdogs. Tourlestrane is another big step. But we’ll go at it. We’ll look at what areas we need to improve on and what they’ll bring to the game. I’m sure they looked at it today - they won’t be too worried about what we offered today. But it’s a different game, a different venue and we’ll see how we get on.”