No excuses from Buncrana boss Tom O’Neill - 'It was like playing a county team'

Tom O’Neill, Buncrana team manager, was a disappointed figure in the aftermath of his side’s heavy 5-23 to 0-12 defeat to a much superior Setanta in the SHC semi-final. 

For apart from the opening 15 minutes, his team were basically outgunned all over the park. And while his son Caolan certainly played his part with a personal tally of 0-9, it was an overall depressing experience for the Inishowen men. 

“What can you say after that..? O’Neill reflected. “It is disappointing, but what can you do as the boys just did not perform on the night and that was it. 

“They are a much stronger team and it is very hard to beat a team - that is virtually a Nickey Rackard county team and fair play to them.” 

O’Neill agreed that Setanta were most impressive on the night. 

“It was like a club team playing against a county team as they have eleven or twelve Donegal players and we have one, that is a big difference. 

“Having said that, I thought we should have given them a much better game than we did. 

“We did put it up to them in the opening 20 minutes all right, but once they settled into their rhythm of play, there was no stopping them at all. 

“In fairness, we have more players back this year and they are quite young so hopefully they will learn something from this and see the level you need to be at to be competing for a county title. 

“But we have to plan for the future and keep going. We had a bit of underage success in the past and we need to build on that for the future.”