Second goal a killer, says Sars manager

For Sarsfields manager Eamonn Kelleher, the game lived up his prediction of a tight encounter and while obviously saddened at the loss, he was philosophical enough to accept that was the nature of the game.

“It’s very disappointing, obviously,” he said, “but it could have gone either way.

“I said earlier in the week there would only be a puck of a ball in it and that’s the way it turned out really, Midleton got the points late on.

“You’d have to say good luck to them, they won it on merit and I’ve no doubt that they’ll have an impact in the provincial club championship.”

Kelleher pinpointed Conor Lehane’s second goal for Midleton, which eradicated a 1-8 to 1-5 lead Sars had built up after a purple patch in the first-half, as having a defining moment. It helped the Magpies to lead at half-time and Sars were in front just once more in the game after that.

“Yeah, realistically that was a key moment in the game,” he said.

“That’s the way they go though, you’re working with very fine margins. A couple of things like that went Midleton’s way but they played very well and we can’t have any complaints.”

Since 2008, Sars have won the title at two-year intervals, bouncing back from the ’09 final defeat to Newtownshandrum to beat Glen Rovers the following year. Kelleher is optimistic at the possibility of this squad’s desire to come back, though he admitted he was not sure of the managerial situation.

“They’ll want to prove themselves again,” he said.

“We’ll give them a few weeks off now and then they’ll knuckle down to it again. They’ll rest and regroup, whoever will be in charge of them next year.

“I don’t know what the set-up will be next year, there might be a new management team in place next year, we’ll just have to wait and see.”