Antrim left to lament missed chances

By Daire Walsh

Antrim joint manager Chris Scullion lamented not taking chances in the second half of Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

Louth and Antrim were bidding to win the title for a fourth time but a first defeat of the season left the Saffrons pondering what might have been after a brilliant start to the final with Bronagh Devlin’s penalty.

“There was a couple of opportunities presented to ourselves in the second half. It just didn’t fall our way today,” Scullion said.

“It seemed to be mistake after mistake sometimes and we were constantly trying to regroup the girls to go again, go again.

“It maybe took a toll on them, but I’m not taking anything away from Louth. Louth were brilliant today.

“They set up defensively, kept their same structure and they were able to break out and it caused us problems. They were able to work the ball around and get their scores. Fair play to them.

“Whenever they attacked, we tried to block them out the same way they were doing to us. It’s just unfortunate we just couldn’t get the final ball, the final pass to ourselves to break through. Maybe get our chance.

“It did present itself right there at the end, but we were trying to get that instruction onto the field five, 10 minutes earlier to press up and push up on their kick-outs. To try and get the turnovers because we were still chasing the game. It’s just unfortunate it just didn’t go our way.”

Louth manager Kevin Larkin said hailed his charges as they recovered from a poor start to bounce back from losing last year’s decider to Fermanagh, capturing the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship title at Croke Park for a record fourth time.

“What a group to work with. All of Ireland has seen it there. Penalty, four points down and the girls just kept going, kept going and we went in a point up,” he said.

“There was 20 seconds on the clock before the break and we didn’t stop. We didn’t try and slow it down. We could have slowed it down and gone in with a draw. It wasn’t good for us, but again, the players called that on the pitch themselves. They’re just a brilliant group.

“I’ve been saying it to the girls, their mental strength and their resilience is their biggest weapon. They’re just fantastic and even the control on the ball. Eimear Murray put in a tackle there. I thought Lara Dahunsi was through and I was like ‘ah, no’ and Eimear gets a hand in. Rachel Beirth did not give your one an inch.

“It’s all over the pitch. I know obviously the forwards will probably get the headlines, but everywhere over the pitch we were just fantastic.”