ermanagh Manager James Daly was left frustrated as his side lost a seven-point half-time advantage to lose their Ulster final encounter against Antrim by a point at Healy Park on Saturday.

Fermanagh played some delightful football in the first half as they deservedly went in at the break with a sizeable cushion, but Antrim responded well after the interval with the Saffrons finishing up one-point victors at the conclusion.

“It was disappointing – when you go in at half time seven points up, you are meant to win, I don’t care what level of sport you are at,” said Daly.

“We were unlucky too, with Eimear missing the penalty and she also had the goal disallowed, although that’s the rules, but at the same time Roisin Gleeson had a hell of a game in goals for us and pulled off some important saves, but then that’s her job, too.”

Daly was though pleased with his side’s first-half display as they played the game on their terms and dictated long periods.

“In the first half we had a better handle on how we needed to play and how we wanted to play and we played exactly the way we wanted, and that’s why we were seven points up at half time.

“I actually think we left two or three easy scores behind us in the first half, and we could have been further ahead,” he stated.

The message at half time from the Fermanagh management was to continue to do what they were doing, but this never happened and Daly feels that with a young side, a lot of this was simply down to inexperience.

“We told the girls at half time that the next score would be the big score, and that we needed to be focused and continue doing what we were doing, but it didn’t happen.

“It is very frustrating but I would put a lot of it down to inexperience. That ten or 15 minutes at the start of the second half, we kept kicking the ball, and we don’t really want them doing that.

“I keep emphasising on keeping the ball and at the start of the second half we kept kicking it away, and then there was a bit of panic and we tried to force passes that weren’t there. and that just comes with experience. I do think though that we are getting there,” he said.

Fermanagh also had to deal with some big injuries as they lost Shannon McQuade two days before the game, before Molly McGloin was forced off after only eight minutes, which required a reshuffle of the pack.

“To lose Shannon McQuade on the Thursday and lose Molly McGloin nine minutes into the game, that was a severe blow, and to still only lose by a point, it is hard to take.

“When we lost Molly, we had to then bring Sarah McCarville back into full back line and in doing that we lost her driving with the ball,” he said.

Fermanagh though don’t have much time to dwell on the defeat as thoughts turn to the All Ireland series which gets under way in two weeks’ time.

Fermanagh are in a group with Carlow, Derry and London, with the top two progressing to the All Ireland semi-finals – and that’s where Daly wants to be.

“I’m still confident that we can get to the semi-final and hopefully a final then. There are some serious footballers on this team and for us they have only got better and better and they are starting to grow as footballers.

“I think we are in a good place, heading into the All Ireland series, and we are looking forward to it.

“We start with Carlow, which will be a good test against a team we haven’t seen. Then we have Derry, who we know all about, and then it’s London and you really don’t know what is coming out of London – they could be very good, you just don’t know,” he said.