Young Boyne team can

A bitterly disappointed Eastwood declined to be interviewed afterwards, but O’Reilly tried to put a brave face on things as he assessed the 80 minutes and looked ahead to next season.

‘I congralate Omagh on their win and wish them well in the AIL,’ he said, ‘but it’s very hard on our lads because they fought hard in the last four or five games and I don’t think they did themselves justice out there, in fairness.

‘I don’t know whether it was nerves, but there were a lot of unforced errors and maybe we tried to force things a bit too much. We dominated possession in the first 20 minutes and didn’t score, and then they came out and scored and that was a killer blow.

‘I think we needed to rattle their cage a bit and get scores on the board and put pressure on them because they were coming here as underdogs, but they’re a good side and didn’t win the Ulster championship for nothing.

‘Now we just have to regroup and go ahead for next year. There’s a Towns Cup to look forward to and we are where we are - there’s nothing we can do about it now.’

A small measure of consolation is that there won’t be the same huge expense of running a team in the Leinster League, compared to the AIL, but O’Reilly insisted that Boyne won’t be content to survive in provincial rugby.

‘It’s very tough and very costly [in the AIL], he acknowledged. ‘From talking to a couple of Omagh guys inside, they were nearly worried about the fact they did go up financially because it’s a huge ask and you have to travel the length and breadth of the country to Midleton, Bruff