Derrygonnelly Manager Garry Smyth felt the referee made the wrong call in not allowing Eimear Smyth the advantage to play on after she was fouled in extra time of their two-point All Ireland Intermediate Championship semi-final defeat to Mullinahone in Callan on Sunday.

Smyth kept her feet and powered through to stick the ball in the net, but the official had blown his whistle and called the play back for a free.

“It is easy to be critical of officials and when you are close to it, it is difficult to be objective, but certainly I would feel that on any interpretation not applying the advantage rule and disallowing the goal we scored was illogical and a massive call.

“That score would have put us four points up with about seven minutes to play in extra time, so it was a big call.

“It left Mullinahone still within touching distance and Lorraine O’Shea took her goal really well and she followed it up with a fine point from play, which left it a two-point game, and with the time the clock beat us, and we just couldn’t claw it back.

“The girls though kept going to the end and never threw in the towel,” he said.

The Harps Manager though had nothing but praise for the efforts of his side over the course of the campaign.

“I would have nothing but praise for the group and that journey that they have brought us on over this last 14 weeks.

“They have played some outstanding football, and the girls as a team were courageous in every sense in how they faced up to every challenge that we met along the way.

“There was disappointment with how the game ended, but when you reflect on the season you could not have anything but massive respect for the group and what they have achieved,” he added.

Derrygonnelly were slow to get going in the game although Smyth doesn’t know how much of that was due to the fact that they had faced another long journey, having been in London the week before.

“It is easy to make excuses, and once we got going in the game we got up to the speed of it, but it took some time to find our feet and we were fortunate that during that spell that Mullinahone didn’t take full advantage, as they had opportunities to do so.

“But we managed to get through that period relatively unscathed, and then once we got a couple of scores, that give us a bit if impetus.

“There is no doubt though that there is an accumulative affect of playing so many games, and with the travel involved it has to have some sort of bearing, but as to how much we won’t know.”

He was though keen to praise the efforts of the large Harps support that made the long trip to Kilkenny for the tie, coming a week after many of them had followed the team to London.

“We were delighted to have such a massive support in Callan. People made the long journey down and the team were very grateful to have that support, and particularly after the final whistle it was great for the girls to have that support on the pitch.

“It was a massive ask of supporters, to go to London one week and then the opposite end of the country the next week, but these situations only arise once in a lifetime, and when the opportunity arose people were happy to row in behind the team,” he added.

Disappointment may have been the overriding emotion at the end of the game, but when the dust settles, Smyth knows they can look back on a great year.

“It has been a fantastic journey that we have been taken on by this group and they have given the club a big boost, and Ladies’ football in our club has been put on the map by the efforts of the group, so you would have to be grateful to them.

“When you look back, when the dust settles it has been a productive year,” he said.