St. PAT’S Manager Paul Hasson says that once the hurt from Sunday’s Ulster Club defeat to Desertmartin subsides, his players can look back with pride on what has been a successful season for the Donagh outfit.

St. Pat’s were second-best to the Derry side at Brewster Park and they were not helped by the fact that they had a Red Card and two Black Cards to contend with over the course of the contest as they struggled to get a platform in the encounter.

“It was disappointing – the calibre of the team we were playing wasn’t lost on the boys, and we struggled to get a foothold on the game.

“The early Black Card didn’t help; some of the decisions in the game I felt were harsh, and when he couldn’t explain them it made them a bit more frustrating, but that’s the way football goes sometimes.

“But you can’t win an Ulster Championship match when you don’t have 15 v 15 for the majority of the game,” he said.

St.Pat’s did enjoy a good spell as they closed to within two points close to the end of the first half, but Desermartin responded by hitting 1-02 before the half-time whistle to put them in firm control of the tie.

“The lads showed great character whenever we had the full compliment back on the field.

“We pushed up on them and caused them problems, and even though we missed a good few easy chances we still got it back to a two-point game.

“But then we got hit with a sucker punch of a goal just before half time and that didn’t help matters, and although we tried to get a foothold at the start of the second half, we then had another decision against us with the sending off, and we couldn’t get a foothold in it for long enough,” said Hasson.

However, he stresses that it has been a year of progress for the Donagh outfit as they clinched the Junior Championship along with the Division Two title.

“When the dust settles, the lads will look back and realise the progress they have made this year and if they look to where they were at at the start of the year to now, it shows how much they have come on.

“They have made great leaps and bounds this year, everything they could win in Fermanagh was won, and they can take great joy from that.

“It is a sign of the squad of where they are at and where they want to be, moving forward, that yesterday’s defeat is hurting them as much as it is, which is a good sign.

“There is plenty to look forward to next year, there is Division One football and Intermediate Championship to look forward to, and there will be new players coming into the squad from the underage set-up so there will be a freshness about the squad, so it is exciting times for St. Pat’s going ahead into 2022.

“Once they get the pain of yesterday out of the way, there is a lot to look forward to,” he said.

And the Derry native is hoping that they can continue to push on next year.

“It’s a three-year plan to try and get St. Pat’s up to Senior football, so we’ve built the foundations this year and hopefully we can add to that for the next season,” he added.