'We were beaten by the better team on the day' – Enda Monaghan

While he opined that his charges had been “a bit flat”, Mullingar Shamrocks manager Enda Monaghan was very magnanimous after his side lost last Sunday’s Westmeath senior football quarter-final to Tyrrellspass whom he described as “excellent on the day”.

The St Patrick’s, Navan teacher added: “I said to the lads that I felt we’d have a very good chance of winning the game if we performed to our ability, but we feel now that we didn’t get near where we had been in the last couple of games. Tyrrellspass were fourth in section ‘A’ and I don’t think there’s a massive difference in class between section ‘B’ and section ‘A’. I think it’s far more even than people think. Maybe it would be better if three teams got out of both sections.”

Reflecting on the game further, he continued: “We were two points down at half-time, but started the second half well and got into a good position. We missed a goal chance and they took their goal chance and, ultimately, that was the difference between the teams in the end. It was a sucker punch, but hats off to Tyrrellspass. We’re looking at stats now and it’s been a bit of an issue for us all year. Our conversion rate has been around 55 to 60 per cent, and you need to get that up a bit more to be thinking about winning a championship. We wilted a bit, we lacked a bit of energy around the middle of the field coming into the last ten minutes when the tempo was high on a warm day. They finished the game better than us. Tyrrellspass were much more economical than us in front of goals. We’ve absolutely no complaints. We were beaten by the better team on the day.”

Looking ahead, Monaghan concluded: “There’s incredible work going on at underage, we have a great executive, and we have our new grounds to look forward to. Someday we will be back competing at the very top.”