Quigley and Lynch reflect on Lurgan’s county final triumph

Damien Donohoe

Lurgan’s manager Neil Quigley and Player of the Match Edith Lynch both spoke of hunger, collective effort and the surge of youth in the panel as the club celebrated retaining the Cavan Senior Ladies Football Championship title at Kingspan Breffni.

For Quigley, the second half was everything he had been waiting for.

“We’d probably been searching for that second half all year,” he said. “Come championship time, when we had everyone available, we felt even at half-time, although we were only three points up, that we were on top. We just spoke about driving on, doing ourselves justice and getting the performance we’d been talking about. Credit to the girls, they executed the game plan.”

He played down any major tactical switch at the break, describing it as more of a collective focus than a single move. One notable tweak was bringing Clara Lynch out from full-forward to midfield for more involvement.

“It was really just about sorting out who was picking up around the middle and inside. We knew Clara could influence it further out the field and we wanted a bit more dominance there to stop the ball getting inside.”

The manager believes the open expanse of Kingspan Breffni suits his players and called for more high-profile women’s games at the venue.

“We love getting into Breffni, we’ve talked about that all year. The girls excel here. To promote the game more it’d be great if more women’s matches were staged here, the way every men’s game is.”

Quigley also highlighted the impact from the bench and the strength of Lurgan’s underage system.

“There were four or five girls we had to tell they weren’t starting but we weren’t just talking when we said they’d be needed. We rolled the bench and they made a difference. Our junior team are unbeaten and in their final too. If you have two good teams in your club you’re going somewhere.”

Edith Lynch, meanwhile, epitomised the hunger Quigley referenced. After two years in Australia she returned this season determined to reclaim her place.

“The hunger was there when I came back. New management, new strength and conditioning, we started at the beginning of the year and kept pushing right through. This is where we wanted to be,” she said.

Looking ahead, both Quigley and Lynch have their eyes on Ulster. Lurgan reached the provincial final last year without Edith, this time she wants to be on the pitch.

“I remember sitting in Sydney last year, excited for them but jealous too. Hopefully this year we can push on and do something similar, it would be great.”

For Quigley, it’s “one game at a time” but he acknowledges his ambitious group are keen to go further. First, though, they will savour another hard-earned county crown.