'Desperately disappointed' Conor Ronan makes no excuses after Athy's Leinster final defeat

It is never easy meeting the press after suffering defeat but even more difficult when the game happens to be a Leinster Senior Club final, but Athy joint-manager, Conor Ronan, certainly did not shy away as he readily gave his opinion on the Kildare champions' disappointing display against Ballyboden St Enda's.

“Obviously we looked very nervy at the start in particular, they (Ballyboden) settled in very quickly, really got a hold of fit and seemed to be very dominant on their kick-outs; the goal was a real sucker punch, but unfortunately we got turned-over and they capitalised on that.”

The assistant manager added that he felt the real story of the game was the number of times they got turned-over, adding “in fairness to the lads they kept going and going, sure at the end of the day that is all we can ask for.”

Conor said they felt on the line that once they got their opening score and then the second “we were really in this, and despite conceding that late first half goal, we felt we were still really in the game but things just went away from us in the second half unfortunately.

“They got that purple patch in the early stages of the second half and they certainly made hay with that, to be honest, we just couldn't get the ball down to the end of the pitch, that is just the way it goes and while we are all desperately disappointed we gave it our all, just wasn't good enough on the day against a very strong Ballyboden St. Enda's side.”

Ronan added that the defeat does not take away from the great season they have enjoyed, adding “as I said to you boys after the semi-final if you told us we would be playing still in the first week of December, and in Croke Park, at that, we would have taken that no doubt.”

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