Lavey an example to rest of county, says Hyland

Lavey manager Terry Hyland refused to be downbeat after the final whistle, which effectively spelled an end his two-year involvement with this Lavey team. "Well, that's the Lavey way, the Lavey spirit is always there," said Hyland when asked about the heart his side showed in a battling second half performance. "I know unfortunately we were down a man, but those things happen in games. "They were a good quality side and it's hard to play for that long against a side like them but I couldn't say enough for our fellas. Their workrate, their heart.. If we can get that enthusiasm into the rest of the county we'll be going the right way." Hyland was in philosophical mood, ruing a number of poor decisions at crucial stages. "We had to work so hard to get the ball up the field, we weren't supporting our forward line, they were dropping two inside and we weren't getting close enough to them..." he said. "It's just one of those things. There are days it will work and days it didn't and today it just didn't happen, but we can't fault the effort. Okay, maybe we did some silly things under pressure and pressure causes that, but they'll learn a lot from that. "Lavey will come on a tremendous amount from this game." Lavey captain Darren Smith, who did a good job on the dangerous Owen Mulligan, expressed similar sentiments to his manager. We can hold our heads high, we fought hard there towards the end," said the full-back. "I suppose if we hadn't gone down to 14 men we mightn't have played as hard or worked as hard, you can't put that down as the cause of losing the match. "We had our chances and just didn't take them. But they are a good side. They showed their class and their ability out there, they will be hard to beat in the rest of the competition. "We can be proud of what we've done though. It's a great achievement to get this far and I hope that we can push on from this and be successfull next year. "At the start of the year we were just looking to win within the county and to go that extra bit further and reach an Ulster final is a great bonus." Last word goes to Hyland: "They are a very, very young side," said the Lacken clubman. "We ended up with three guys who are minors next year playing, and that has to be exciting for Lavey. Their youth policy has been wonderful. Their oldest players are Joey Jordan and Sean Maguire at 26 or 27, so it's a very young team and in two or three years they should have a tremendous side if they keep going the way they are going."