‘It’s tough to put into words at the minute’ - Aghamore’s Connacht junior championship dream ends after epic semi-final

THE victors and the vanquished were both clapped off the field by their respective supporters as Aghamore manager Keith Cassidy did his best to make sense of the most epic game of ladies football ever to grace the East Mayo parish.

“We came to win the game. Sadly, things just didn’t click today for us but as an overall year we were going to look at winning the junior championship in Mayo. We’ve done that and that was our goal,” began Cassidy.

“There’s devastation, it’s tough to put into words at the minute, what we’re thinking, what the girls are thinking,” he added. “It’s not about the management, it’s about the group of girls. We’ve soldiered since last January and today we came up short but look they still won their county title.”

Cassidy told The Mayo News that his charges were the better team on Saturday. That’s a totally fair opinion, leaving home bias aside and taking nothing from the gallant women of Coolera Strandhill.

He was a devastated but very proud man after the game - and he had every right to be.

“It was tough on the line, we left chances behind us but we’ve been doing that all year. We’ve been kicking big scores, but today we didn’t. It was one of them things, I’m afraid.”

A first ever season in intermediate football now awaits for this team of all-rounders.

“There’s a few decisions to be made over the next few weeks, so there is. We’ll have a go at it anyway, it doesn’t matter who’s in charge,” said Cassidy,

“The girls, they just worked their socks off between Tooreen and Aghamore and Mayo I’d say there’s about 200 training sessions and games this year so they’ll go again.”

Aghamore will go again. They always do.