James vows Ballinamore will be back despite Senior B Final disappointment

Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins will dust themselves off and target next Sunday’s Gotham Dry Wall Senior A Final according to James Boyle despite the disappointment of seeing his team pipped at the post in the Senior B Final against Kiltubrid.

“It was a great game, a great advertisement for Leitrim club football but it is bitterly disappointing to take,” was James’ initial reaction, “We were very lucky to get into two finals and we were obviously aiming to take a win in both of them. It is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but hopefully the girls will be able to rally next week for the real big one and take it to Manorhamilton.”

Kiltubrid celebrate dramatic Gotham Dry Wall LGFA Senior B Final win over Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins - GALLERY

Kiltubrid put the pain of near misses in this year's championship and last year's Senior B Final when they hung on to claim a 3-13 to 4-9 victory over Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins in Sunday's Gotham Dry Wall LGFA Senior B Final. And Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was there to capture some great images from the celebrations ..... see who you can spot!

In fact you sense that picking themselves up for the challenge of facing Glencar Manorhamilton will not be a problem for James’ team: “I don’t think it will be too hard to pick them up - they are a very motivated group, they want to succeed. They knew that today wasn’t the ultimate prize and I’m not taking anything away from anybody’s performance.

“There are lots of things we could have and should have done better but next week is the one the girls wanted to go for at the start of the year and hopefully now, if they can get their levels up to where they need to be, they can put on a good show and we’ll see where it takes us.”

James believes the B Final will stand to his troops: “The overriding feeling is immensely proud of the effort the girls put in and hoping they can kick it on for next week. A brilliant experience to have a county final before a County Final.

“I don’t think we could have got a better challenge game than that in terms of preparation and I think the girls will be ready next week and all going well, we will play a good game.”

Coping with Michelle Guckian was a tough task and James is full of admiration for the player of the match: “Michelle is a fantastic player, we took a bit too long to get to grips with their gameplan at different stages. The middle third of the game after the first 15-20 minutes of the first half, I thought we were doing fairly well and the balance of the play was roughly along where we wanted it to be.

Kiltubrid celebrate dramatic Gotham Dry Wall LGFA Senior B Final win over Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins - GALLERY

Kiltubrid put the pain of near misses in this year's championship and last year's Senior B Final when they hung on to claim a 3-13 to 4-9 victory over Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins in Sunday's Gotham Dry Wall LGFA Senior B Final. And Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was there to capture some great images from the celebrations ..... see who you can spot!

“We just dropped off a little bit, we got punished, they got a lucky goal off a rebound off the post and unfortunately that ended up proving costly.”

Although he felt his side should have got a penalty late on, James didn’t make a big issue out of it: “Referees have a split decision to make a call on it and it is not simple but from my vantage point, I thought it was in the square and our player fell out of the square but look sometimes they go for you and sometimes they go against you and today it went against us.”