Dempsey: we're shell-shocked

December 18, 2017

St Loman's manager Luke Dempsey.
©INPHO/Ryan Byrne.

A crestfallen St. Loman's manager Luke Dempsey admitted to feeling 'shell-shocked' after his side's late Leinster club SFC final collapse.

Leading by six points going into injury-time and playing all the football, the three-in-a-row Westmeath champions were within touching distance of their first provincial title, but they then suddenly lost their focus and allowed Moorefield to stage one of the greatest comebacks in the competition's history.

"The players are shell-shocked. I suppose I'm shell-shocked myself," Dempsey is quoted as saying in the Irish Independent.

"As in any sport, if you get a goal that late you have the momentum. And then when I saw there were to be five minutes of injury-time, I thought 'this is going to go to the wire', which it did. Moorefield have that never-say-die attitude, they've had it all year.

"I thought when we got the second goal, there was only going to be one winner. But you don't allow for David Whelan, who is one of our better backs, and Paul Sharry coming off the field in those last five minutes and that was a contributing factor," added the former Westmeath, Longford and Carlow manager who led Moorefield to back-to-back Kildare SFC titles in 2013 and '14.


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