ON HIS GAME Tooreen’s Liam Lavin get away from Monaleen’s Lochlann McHale during the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Championship Final at Croke Park. Pic: Sportsfile
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Oisín McGovern
TOOREEN aren’t finished yet.
That’s according to their manager Ray Larkin, who said he was ‘immensely proud’ of a display that saw them push Limerick opposition to the pin of their collar.
Speaking after their heartbreaking All-Ireland club final defeat to Monaleen, Larkin admitted that his side ‘lost their way’ during the final quarter.
“We’re just disappointed really. Going in two points up at half-time I thought we’d a great chance and came up and got the next two scores. After that we lost our way a bit in the second half there in the last ten or fifteen minutes,” the Galway native told mayogaa.com
“I’m just immensely proud of the boys. We learned a lot from the Naas game last year and we learned again from today. We’ll be back next year bigger and stronger and better.
“It’s down to the boys really. They feared nothing coming up today and we’d have thought ourselves we’d a really good chance going in at half-time,” he added.
“We were really happy with what we’d done and that’s why everything was going well for us. “It was just the bit of luck on the day. We hit the crossbar, missed one or two frees, but another day they’d have gone our way and they’d have made a difference.”
The Kilnadeema-Leitrim native had praise for his captain Shane Boland, who played the full game after previously indicating that he would not feature due to a hamstring injury.
The county man finished as Tooreen’s joint highest scorer with four points (two from frees).
“Shane hadn’t trained really in the last couple of weeks. He’d a scan during the week and we got good news with it,” Larkin revealed.
“He worked hard on his injury all week and I’m proud of the lads. A lot of them are very disappointed but we know we have to rile them up again and get going again.”
He described the support from the travelling Tooreen fans as ‘massive’.
“It’s great every person that’s in Tooreen is here today. They believed that we’d a great chance today coming up. For the last couple of years, we wouldn’t be where we are without them.”
