Gutted Gortnahoe lament poor performance
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Roscrea hurlers shows respect by shaking hands with the referee Michael Kennedy and his officials prior to the FBD Premier County IHC Final. Photo: Bridget Delaney BRIDGET DELANEYImage 2 of 2
Roscrea’s Luke Cashin gains possession tackled by Karl Campion in the Premier Intermediate Hurling final. Photo: Bridget Delaney BRIDGET DELANEYBy Michael Dundon
There were tears, consoling embraces between deflated team mates and management, and an air of desolation as Gortnahoe/Glengoole players stood dutifully and respectfully to see rivals Roscrea accept the O Riain Cup following Roscrea’s victory in the County Premier Intermediate Hurling final at FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday.
County intermediate champions in 2020, Gortnahoe-Glengoole came with high hopes of joining hurling elite in the Dan Breen senior championship next year but a below par performance by their own standards was not good enough to prevent Roscrea from achieving an immediate return to hurling’s top table in the county.
Two late goal chances were stymied by the excellence of Roscrea goalkeeper Daryl Ryan and Gortnahoe-Glengoole were left to bemoan a campaign which for all its promise did not yield any silverware as they had also lost to Clonakenny in the Mid semi-final.
No one felt the defeat more than stalwart clubman Mike Cleary, a man who has given outstanding service to the club as a player in his younger days and currently in the backroom group. He summed up the group’s feelings simply and succinctly.
“We are absolutely gutted”, he said.
“We did not play to our potential, but we have no excuse. Roscrea are a fine team. We knew that coming into the final, and they fully deserved to win.
“We were chasing the game most of the way and we had a couple of goal chances at the finish that were saved. If we had got one of them things might have gone differently but that’s how it goes. Our lads gave it everything but things did not go our way on the day so we can have no complaints.
Looking to the future, he added: “We have a young team and they will learn from this. Hopefully we will be back again next year, but it is a long road back, and there are a lot of good teams out there so it will not be easy. We feel we are on the right track, but we will just have to keep at it.”
Gortnahoe-Glengoole have enjoyed under-age success in recent years and with those younger players coming through to challenge for places in the senior side, the future looks bright for the club, who were recently beaten in the county under 17 ‘B’ final.