All-Ireland Club SHC: Slaughtneil’s performance ‘nowhere near the levels we expected’ – Paul McCormack

Slaughtneil beat St John’s in the Ulster final at the end of November, but they faced a sterner test from Loughrea, who led by 0-3 to 0-0 early on and led 1-9 to 0-10 at the break after Anthony Burns’ goal.

But the Ulster champions’ hopes of getting back into the game in the second half were dashed when Vince Morgan scored a stunning goal six minutes into the second half, leaving a seven-point gap between the two teams.

“We weren’t too worried in the first half,” added former Armagh doubles player McCormack.

“Yes, we were looking to raise the bar a little bit. We didn’t start the game on a high and then the second goal was a killer blow.”

After replacing Michael McShane at the helm, McCormack guided Slaughtneil to last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, where they lost to Cork and Munster champions Sarsfields by one point in an agonizing end.

In contrast, Loughria extinguished Slaughtneil’s challenge long before influential midfielder Colin Killeen was sent off in stoppage time for what referee Johnny Murphy saw as a hit on Brendan Rogers.

“They seem to get the points easily,” McCormack noted.

“The game went down and all of a sudden it turned into a three-point game and six or seven-point games, and then we were really chasing the game.

“With their experience and their ingenuity, they’re a really good team, they punished us for all our little mistakes. It just piled up and the game was probably over in the last seven or eight minutes.”