‘It was a great year for the club and county, I am so proud of them’
O’Mahony, S O’Brien, E en, K Hannon, R Crowley. Murphy (37), K O’Connor
K Hannon (0-11, 5f), N y (0-1). S Murphy (0-1), ony (0-1). (Wexford). TOURLESTRANE manager David Bailey said there was very little between the sides on the day.
He said afterwards: “We were not far away, we just didn’t take our chances.
“We had goal chances and we hit 2 of them, there was 4 that we missed on target.
“Just silly mistakes, we looked for the ball on the ground, the 5 yard handpass stuff like that.
“Look it just wasn’t our day,” the manager explained.
He said losing Nikki Brennan was a loss early into the second half. “Nikki was a big loss in the middle of the field.
“I thought the ref was very harsh with us in the second half, pulled us for a few simple things gone wrong but that is the way it is there is no point in blaming anyone, we just weren’t good enough on the day.”
David credited his players for continuing right to the end. “Molly Kennedy came on there in the second half and she bagged a goal for us. Would she have made a difference for us if she had come on ten or 15 minutes earlier, you don’t know.
“The girls played until the whistle was out,” he added.
David said Dave Carey (Glanmire manager) had his homework well done.
“They are together since 2002 I think it is. Dave has them for the last 15 years or something like that and they’ve done their homework.
“Obviously I wouldn’t say they are a better team than us it just happened for them on the day and that is just it.”
On their fantastic year David pointed out: “It was a great year for the club, a great year for the county and I am sure David Curran and John O’Hara (new Sligo ladies managers) will be looking for a few of our girls now for the county and best of luck to them with it. I am so proud of them we didn’t shame ourselves you know. They are a great bunch of girls and I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of girls that is there.
“We had one or 2 injuries and we carried them throughout the year, Leonie Gaughan came on late, Ellen my own daughter would have made a difference.
“Look you live with these things, you get on with the team you have but there is none of them that didn’t perform throughout the year for us and we are very lucky you know to be in an All-Ireland final and it is great experience for us.”
In terms of what Tourlestrane have done for ladies and men’s football this year in Sligo David said: “Tourlestrane we are there or there abouts with the lads, the girls and it is a benchmark.
“It is a lift up the ladder with Gaelic football in Sligo alone and I think we should push on out of Division 3 and I wish them the best of luck with that,” David added.