Oisín McConville won't point finger over Wicklow's penalty pain

Oisin McGraynor's spot kick was saved by Limerick goalkeeper Joshua Ryan in the 57th minute of their Tailteann Cup semi-final.

TORMENT: Wicklow manager Oisín McConville during the closing moments of the Tailteann Cup semi-final match between Wicklow and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Considering his own chequered history with penalty taking, Oisín McConville won't be criticising Oisin McGraynor about his Croke Park miss.

McGraynor's spot kick was saved by Limerick goalkeeper Joshua Ryan in the 57th minute. Wicklow were under siege at the time and, had it gone in, they'd have jumped from one to four points clear, stabilising them at a vital stage.

"The penalty is one of those things," shrugged McConville, who famously failed to convert one in the 2002 All-Ireland final. "I've taken a few penalties and missed a couple in my time but you have to have the guts to step up and hit them.

"Oisín (McGraynor) tucked one away only last week. That's just the way it goes, there will be no blame game in there, in our dressing-room, it's a collective responsibility. I have to look at myself and we all have to look at ourselves as to what happened in the last 20 minutes.

"But look, the more Wicklow put themselves in that position, the better they're going to be at closing out games."

McConville said it will be a hard watch whenever he and his management team get around to reviewing the final 20 minutes or so.

They were outscored 1-9 to 0-1 in that period. From goalkeeping errors to the missed penalty to some cracking Limerick scores, including one free converted from nearly 60 metres out, it was a finale to savour if you were a neutral.

"I never for one minute thought we were over the line," maintained McConville. "In fact, maybe we were ahead too early because our mentality is to keep going after and keep chasing the games and that seemed to change today when we went seven points up.

"That's the hard part - we have been finishing games well but we didn't do that in any aspect today. Once they got the goal, our heads dropped very quickly. If we had held onto that seven-point lead for even three or four more minutes, it really would have helped."