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29 Dec 2025
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29 Dec 2025
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Tomas McNulty of Sean MacCumhaills and Cushendall's Nicholas McLaughlin battle for the sliotar Photo Paul Patton
Sean MacCumhaills minor hurlers coach Anthony Patton admitted that it was hard to look positively after their Ulster Minor Hurling final defeat on Sunday, but it’ll be seen as a positive when the hurt goes.
The Twin-Towns men had already defied the odds in becoming the first Donegal team to reach the final of the Leadon Timber Frame Ulster Minor Club Hurling Cup Final after winning the Shield, but it wasn’t to be a fairytale story for the third week in a row, as Cushendall ran out 3-17 to 0-4 winners.
“At the start of the year, we never even thought about getting to the Cup final,” Patton said after the match.
“We did target the Shield because we were up at this competition last year, and we were very disappointed to get beat, so we focused on it this year.
“We were unbelievable through the campaign, especially in the last three weeks. We were being written off, and to get the win over Carrickmore was a big scalp.
“But then to get the win with a depleted squad against Ballygalget and get into the final, it’s hard to look at anything else at the moment, but when the dust settles, and we look back, it’ll be happy times.”
As mentioned, MacCumhaills beat the Down champions in the semi-final last week without the spine of their team, making the win even more impressive.
And confidence would have been up with the returns of Jacob Malone, Adam Byrne, Pauric Kelly, Tomas McNulty and Jamie Gallen.
But they had a slow start, with Cushendall hitting the net inside 25 seconds, and they grew on from there.
“We knew it was going to be a massive task, and you’re playing against the cream of the crop up here in Ulster.
“We got off to a poor start, and a couple of boys we chanced back in that probably weren’t 100% so we were trying our best to pick a team which was hard.
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“I thought the boys battled well, especially towards the end, but it was maybe just a bridge too far on the day.”
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