TEEMORE manager Tony Collins admitted that they were keen to push on in Ulster this year but on Sunday they came up against a Liatroim side who were just a step too far for the Shamrocks.

Teemore had mostly breezed through the Fermanagh Intermediate Championship but Ulster proved to be a big step up as Liatroim ran out comfortable winners in the end.

“We were looking to go that wee bit further in the championship and we had a belief that we would contest that game but unfortunately it turned out that we didn’t.

“There was a lot of work put in during the two weeks prior to it and there was a lot of work done in terms of analysis of Liatroim but they had obviously done it as well and they got the better of us,” accepted Collins.

The Down champions pace was problematic throughout the game for Teemore who struggled to pick up their runners from deep.

“Their pace and movement and their ability to counter-attack gave us problems,” said Collins. “They closed our boys down, put us under pressure and turned the ball over and then they came at us with pace and numbers. It is very hard to pick up defensively on that and mark them. They had a lot of power and energy coming forward and created a lot of problems for us.”

Indeed, Teemore failed to get on the scoreboard in the first half as Liatroim went in with a 2-04 to 0-00 lead.

So what was the message to the players at half time?

“The message was to start playing the football that they normally play and not to be holding back. We wanted them to do what they had been doing all year and take the game to them the opposition and not do silly things like playing balls in that they shouldn’t be playing.

“We just wanted them to go back to playing with a bit of aggression and a bit of belief. It was difficult with it being a 10-point deficit at half time but we could have got a goal inside the first minute and then we got three unanswered points and it looked like we had it turned a bit but their third goal took the life out of us,” added Collins.

The Teemore manager though believes that while it was a tough day at the office, it is an experience that the players should learn from.

“It was the unknown, facing an opposition that we don’t know about. We thought we knew about them but we weren’t long finding out what they were really about. You want to be able to adapt and change and match that but unfortunately on the day we didn’t.

“But there is a lot of learnings from it and a lot of the young lads can take the experience from it and even though that may be a negative one it will improve them. Everybody has to take stock, players and management because they haven’t been exposed to that before. It is a steep learning curve for everybody.”

He stresses though that the defeat doesn’t take away from what has been a successful year for the Shamrocks.

“We were disappointed to not get up in the league but at the same time, we performed well when down a lot of players in the league. We did well in the championship and to win the first trophy for 11 years was great. The Ulster Club obviously hurt but it doesn’t take away from a successful year,” he said.