"We had it in our hands" says Murray after The Downs’ held

The Downs’ manager, Johnny Murray, expressed both pride and frustration following his side’s dramatic 1-13 to 1-13 draw with reigning champions St Loman's, Mullingar in the Westmeath Senior Football Final at TEG Cusack Park on Sunday.

In a tense and hard-fought battle, The Downs recovered from a poor start but were left to rue missed opportunities and late defensive lapses.

Reflecting on the game, Murray described it as "tit-for-tat," noting that neither side could pull away decisively. He felt it's St Loman's who live to fight another day rather than his side: "they got the last score," he observed, conceding that The Downs made a very tentative start to the match.

"We started off very bad, gave away a ludicrous goal at the start, and put ourselves under the cosh by going four points down," he said, pointing to the defensive error that gifted St Loman's their opening goal.

Despite the early setback, The Downs grew into the game and mounted a strong response. "We caused them a lot of trouble when we ran at them," Murray said, crediting his side’s ability to challenge St Loman's defence. However, some costly errors, particularly in conceding soft frees, prevented The Downs from taking control. "There were two or three absolutely ridiculous frees that we gave away. John Heslin is a very good free-taker, one of the best in the country, and he punished us every time," he remarked.

Murray was full of praise for his side’s resilience, as they fought back repeatedly after falling behind. "St Loman's went ahead by three points in the second half, but we always came back. That’s The Downs for you; they’re not going to die easy," he said. "We were underdogs, and we had a point to prove. We proved it, but not the right way; we didn’t win the match, and that’s disappointing for me."

Murray also touched on the key moment in the final stages of the match when St Loman's snatched a late equaliser. "We were a point up with a minute to go, but they got that crucial score. He came the whole way from the end line untouched; three moves, crazy stuff. That’s juvenile football, and I’m disgusted with that. We had it in our own hands to finish it, and we didn’t."

Luke Loughlin’s performance was a major highlight for The Downs, particularly his brilliant goal and his composure to score a vital free late in the game. "Luke took a lot of criticism, but he’s a serious captain. He’s gone through an awful lot, and he’s a leader in that dressing room. No matter if he has a bad game or a good game, I’ll stand by Luke Loughlin 100%," Murray said.

Another standout player for The Downs was Charlie Drumm, whose impact was noted by Murray. "Charlie popped up in a brilliant way. He’s a great player, and we were trying to get him further out the field earlier on because of his presence," the manager said, praising the team’s collective effort.

"The whole team really put everything into it. There were things I wasn’t happy with, but they gave it 100%. That’s what a county final is about; you have to give it your best."

As Murray looked ahead to the replay, he acknowledged the challenge of preparing in just six days. "A week is a very short period of time to work on anything, especially after a tough match like that," he said. "There’s little recovery time, but we’ll do what we can to get things right."

Despite the disappointment of not finishing the job in the first match, Murray remained determined and optimistic. "We’re still in it, and we’ll work hard to put things right for the next day. We had it in our own hands and didn’t finish it, but we’re not out of the fight yet."

Murray’s final words highlighted the determination and drive within his team. "There’s no point in going away and saying you didn’t give it your best.

“Those lads gave it everything. We’ll rectify what needs fixing, and we’ll be ready for the replay.

“The players gave it their all and I'd expect no less; it's a county final.

“I'm a hard task master and we'll see can we rectify some of what went wrong for the next day."

Extra-time call criticised

Murray expressed his frustration with the confusion surrounding extra-time and felt the announcement of two periods of 10 minutes each was unfair on players, who were set to go into battle again. He was highly critical of such confusion as people, he said, had already made plans for the following weekend.

"That was a bit silly, the confusion there. It's more than confusion because guys are out there putting their lives on hold and our fellas here, some of them have stuff planned next weekend. I was to go to wedding, that's off now, straight away, I won't be going to it. But, you know what I mean, get it right; get the officialdom right, and then everything follows in place. That wasn't good enough. Frank Mescall (Co Committee Chairman) came in and apologised, that's okay, but whoever let the guy announce that (extra-time), it should have never happened," he said.

"Rules are the rules, they're there, we should get an email out (explaining it). But look, it is what it is, you'd be annoyed over it, because I thought we were really focused on going at them in the second half of it, in the two ten minute periods, but look, that could have turned either way. There's nothing to say we would have won it either. We're really disappointed that the game didn't finish out. But we had it in our own hands and we didn't finish it."