Curran ‘flabbergasted’ at Ulster loss as Donegal move into All-Ireland series

“Flabbergasted” was how Maxi Curran tried to assess what he had just witnessed at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones as his Donegal side were somehow the ones watching on as Armagh lifted the TG4 Ulster Senior Ladies Championship trophy.

Donegal had nine fingers on the cup, yet it’s Armagh’s for the third year in succession after they came from four down to hit 1-1 in the last two minutes and scraped a draw at 2-14 apiece at the end of normal time. Then, with Donegal looking like winners again in extra-time with Geraldine McLaughlin hitting 1-11, only 90 seconds remained when Kelly Mallon grabbed a goal that sealed a 3-17 to 2-19 Armagh win.

Armagh come back from the brink - twice - to send Donegal's Ulster dreams tumbling

Donegal will be scratching their heads having looked like Ulster champions in normal time and again in extra-time, only to leave with nothing as Armagh snatched an unlikely three-in-a-row

“It's a really tough one to take,” Curran said. “We're massively proud of the girls, they put in a huge effort. But we really were the architects of our own downfall there once again. We'd the game won twice there but we kind of blew it. 

“You have to take it on the chin when that happens. I think all three goals came from us giving the ball away. Again, at this level you can't make those kinds of mistakes and hope to get through the other end. It's a heartbreaking one.”   

Curran made reference to last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final against the five-in-a-row All-Ireland chasers Dublin, where Geraldine McLaughlin had posted a goal and two points inside of three minutes to give Donegal a 1-2 to 0-0 advantage. However, Dublin put the squeeze on Donegal to run out winners 2-11 to 2-7.

“The Dublin game last year in Carrick-On-Shannon, we gave the ball away a huge amount. We'd discussed that, and targeted that this season. We thought we'd remedied it and we were very good on the ball against Cavan, very comfortable. But we came unstuck once again today.”

It means that Donegal enter the All-Ireland series, which is made up of 13 teams - one group of four and three of three with the top two in each making the quarter-finals, in a group with Waterford and the eventual Munster champions - either Cork or Kerry.

Group D Donegal take on Waterford on Saturday, June 11, at a neutral venue, before taking on whoever wins Munster eight day later, away from home.

The winners of Group D play whoever comes second in Group A in the quarter-finals, and vice-versa. Group A, the four-team group, contains Tipperary, Cavan, Mayo and the Leinster winners, which will be Meath or Dublin.

“We have to lick our wounds and go again,” Curran added. “I think the Waterford game is neutral and the Munster winners away. I think if we get things right, we're still a match for anyone. But that today will hurt for quite a while. We felt we were good enough to win. It was there for the taking. 

“And those are the ones that really hurt and are probably the hardest to recover from. Time will tell how we pull it together. They are all fierce competitors in there, a committed group. It'll take a wee bit of time to lift them – to get them up again. But I know they'll want to bounce back. And that's the one thing we'll emphasise, that their season doesn't have to be defined by that today.”