Foley disappointed as Inishowen League exit Oscar Traynor Cup

Inishowen League manager Andrew Foley admitted his side weren’t consistent enough throughout the two legs as they were knocked out of the Oscar Traynor Cup by the Donegal Junior League.

A first leg in Ballyare saw them 3-0 down at the break, which was a scoreline that didn’t tell the story of the half, given the chances to that point, but they scored twice in the second half to give themselves hope in Maginn Park on Sunday.

But they couldn’t find the goal to level the game on aggregate and found themselves further behind with 25 minutes to go.

“We’re disappointed with our performance in the second half of this game and the first half of the first leg, and that’s probably what did it for us.

“For the second half in the first leg, we were superb, and the first half here, we were good without being great. We got into lots and lots of positions with set pieces, but deliveries and decision-making maybe let us down.

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“But we didn’t work their goalkeeper hard enough, and when you’re not working the opposition goalkeeper, you’re going to struggle to get positive results.

“To be fair to Donegal, they had a good game plan and stuck to it, and they got their just rewards.

“We probably only had two or three shots on target, and one ended in the net for a disallowed goal.

“We worked good positions, but we never got anything on frame or that the goalkeeper had to save, we never really looked to strike when we got ourselves into good positions and we never created many problems in their own box.”

It’s a third year on the trot that Inishowen have lost out to Donegal, with every two legged decider being keenly contested.

But as Donegal advance, Foley is wishing them well in the national stage, as they progress to the semi-finals after Christmas.

“I have no doubt about it, when you look at the squad Eamonn (Sheridan) has assembled, then maybe he might be able to pull a few more in the New Year now that they've progressed further yet again at our cost.

“He had the team set up superbly, and they came with a very specific game plan, and credit to them, that’s part of the game too, and it worked for them.

“We failed to come up with solutions to it in two of the four halves so they’ll be a massive handful. They have tough defensive players, they have crafty midfielders, and up top they have lads who can cause damage, and I wish Eamonn and the boys the very best on behalf of the Inishowen league for the remainder of the competition.”