Frustrated Lyons rues missed chances in Leitrim LGFA SFC Final but no complaints
Leitrim LGFA SFC Final reaction
Frustration, and maybe even resignation, were the emotions among the St Joseph’s faithful after Saturday’s Leitrim LGFA Senior Championship Final, their manager Enda Lyons expressing his team’s frustration while, at the same time, having no complaints over the final result.
Up against the defending champions, St Joseph’s needed things to go their way but Glencar Manorhamilton gained control early on but even still, Enda was frustrated with aspects of the contest: “Glencar Manorhamilton are an exceptional group of players. You don't have so many county players that start for Leitrim and win games at the county level and all come together for the club.
“Today was very frustrating, to be honest, in the first half. I thought we'd done really well. We missed some big chances - I'd say we probably left 1-4 of really, really good chances we should be taking. You're against a really, really good team and an underdog needs to be taking all those chances and we didn't.
“That's the frustration coming away from it. Defensively, we were actually very well set up. We didn't look like scoring goals. It's just frustration when you don't take your chances and you're not in the game when we had set up to be in the game in the second half.”
The St Joseph’s manager wasn’t happy with some of the frees awarded against his team: “I thought they got some really, really handy frees in that first half, in my opinion. I thought our defence was good, hands in, hands out but very, very handy frees. Then, we don't take our chances and that's the difference. Their goal came from an opportunity down here that we should have scored as well. I think we were kind of looking at the stats at half-time, I think Manor only scored 1-2 from play, the rest from frees. We were penalised for every one of the scores.
“It's just pure frustration. In the second half, we were always chasing and there were gaps. There were always gaps. It's just really frustrating with all the work put in. We didn't show how good we are because we are better than that. Again, when you're playing against good players and you give the ball away in the middle third of the field, you're going to get punished. Unfortunately, that's what we did. There's no complaints from our end.”
Enda also praised the commitment of his players: “Listen, this group, they owe nothing to anybody. They've been on the clock a long time, I think it's 12 years now and they’ve only not made it to the final twice. It is a great credit to them and they keep coming back every year.”
St Joseph’s have a Connacht Senior B campaign to consider, out against Claregalway next Sunday but Enda hasn’t thought that far ahead: “To be honest, I haven't even thought about anything. We were just fully focused on this in the last two weeks and I never even thought about it. I actually knew nothing about it and that's not trying to be defeatist or smart. But you'll see where we're at. We'll get back during the week and we'll see where we go from there.”