Tempo Captain Aidan Breen admitted that the Maguires just never came out of the blocks as they slipped to a six-point loss to Devenish in the Intermediate Championship final last Saturday night.

The Garrison side always looked in control of matters and pulled away in the second half to ease to a deserved victory.

“It was disappointing – we didn’t compete at all, we were just outclassed and outfought all over the pitch. It was one of those nights, and it was hard to take,” said the experienced Breen.

Despite Devenish having the better of the exchanges in the first half, there were only two points dividing the sides at half time and Breen felt that they could turn things in their favour after the break, but it never materialised.

“There have been a couple of games this year we have gone in 0-05 to 0-03 down at half time where we felt like we hadn’t played in the first half, and had turned things around, so at half time we were confident that we could lift it.

“But it just didn’t happen. Devenish were just hungrier, they pressed us very high and we struggled to get across the halfway line, to be honest,” said Breen, who acknowledged that the better team won on the night.

“We can have no complaints – the better team won.

“The disappointing thing for us was that for the first time in a couple of years we came together as a group, and there was a lot of work put into it, but then in the final we didn’t compete at all.

“That’s not taking anything away from Devenish – they are a good team, and were the better on the night, but I felt that we had more in us and we should have given them a better game.”

However, he does believes that there are positives to take out of this year, with the aim of pushing on next year.

“We got a few young lads exposed to playing and winning Championship games; we won four Championship [games], so there is a good foundation to build on.

“We also have a couple of boys back this year from the US and then we have a few boys back from injuries, and hopefully we will have Lorcan [McStravick] back next year too, so hopefully we can push on.”