*Tommy Liddy. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
SIXMILEBRIDGE were “second to everything” as they lost their first Clare SHC final since 2011.
Joint manager of the Sixmilebridge senior hurlers, Tommy Liddy was honest in his assessment of Monday’s Clare SHC final. He readily admitted that his charges were “chasing this game the whole way”.
“We brought it back to three and we brought it back to four but they were always able to get another score and stretch their lead again. We were second to everything”, he told The Clare Echo as he watched Feakle players and fans celebrate their success.
Liddy continued, “it would be wrong to say we were off form today. Feakle didn’t allow us to hurl. They were the better team and they wanted this the most”.
According to Tommy, “some of the Feakle players had their finest hour and they are a credit to their club. They deserve every credit as that was an outstanding performance”
That said he was proud of his team’s efforts. “They never gave up but we just couldn’t get the goal we needed. We had talked that if we could bring it down the straight we would have the finishers but we were second to everything from so early that we had to bring on our subs so early that there was no coming down the home straight. I don’t know what went wrong but the better team, the hungrier team on the day won”.
Having completed his first year in charge alongside Stiofain Fitzpatick, Tommy said, “our players will gain from this experience. A number of those who played just came into this panel this year. Hopefully they will learn from this and go on to play in further finals for the club. It’s just hard to take this result right now”.