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An emotional Enda McGinley said he will feel "eternal pride" for the way his Errigal Ciaran players fought back from a nightmare first half to put Cuala under serious pressure in Sunday's All-Ireland Senior Club Football Final.
Cuala's early-scoring blitz left them 3-9 to 0-5 ahead at the interval with McGinley admitting his team were in a "horrible place" at half-time.
But Peter Harte inspired a stirring second-half revival as the Ballygawley men remarkably cut Cuala's lead to only three with two minutes of normal time left before the Dubliners hit the final score to clinch a 3-14 to 1-16 triumph.
"If you've played football long enough, you'll be in that position at half-time in a game where the wheels have come off the wagon. Nothing has happened in the way it was planned and the game is gone," said the Errigal Ciaran boss, adding that his players were facing the club's "darkest hour" at half-time.
"The boys faced a choice of just cracking and feeling sorry for themselves and it could have got exceptionally ugly in the second half.
"Or they had 30 minutes left of their season, they could believe they had a lot more about them than they showed in the first half and that burning pride needs to go somewhere and I felt they did that in the second half," he continued.
"Peter (Harte) was incredible but no matter how special that second-half performance was from him and from plenty of others, it doesn't not surprise me. They are a really special group of players."
Errigal Ciaran's first-half woes included losing star forward Darragh Canavan because of a head injury after only 21 minutes with his brother Ruairi, in addition, taking a bang in the second half which meant that he also had to be taken for a hospital check following the game.
McGinley said that the first half "will be a really tough pill to swallow," conceding that he had to take full responsibility for the team's uncharacteristic lack of energy in the opening period, as they appeared drained after requiring extra-time to beat Dr Crokes eight days ago.
"The first half will stay a long time with me. I felt so sorry for the boys. They didn't deserve that so again, as manager, that's on me.
"I'm just gutted that whatever the approach was, it just didn't take care of the exertions of last weekend.
"It didn't have us right set or right settled and it was a really difficult balance during the week in terms of the sheer emotion within the club and allowing that to build and be experienced."
McGinley wondered aloud whether his approach of allowing the players to experience the emotion felt within the club as the Croke Park occasion approach had backfired.
"Emotion can sometimes leave you in a weaker place," he added.
The Errigal Ciaran boss pointed to the different reactions of last weekend's winning semi-finalists.
"Cuala's reaction after their semi-final was remarkable because it was a shrug of the shoulders, shake hands with their opponents, shake hands with their team-mates and dander off the pitch," McGinley explained.
"Newbridge was a very different experience and a very different thing for our club.
"Emotions have been massive during the week and even coming in on the bus, we were met by supporters and, there were tears from the supporters and there were teams on the bus. Maybe that was too much. I don't know but it was a special experience that will stay long with me."
McGinley is a physiotherapist and said he knew Darragh Canavan would have to go off immediately after taking an accidental knee to the head in a challenge by Eoin O'Callaghan.
"I knew from the first response that he was gone. I know enough about head injuries unfortunately. At that stage, the only thing you care about is the lad."
The Errigal Ciaran manager said the issue of Ruairi Canavan being "dazed" became apparent immediately following the game.
"When the final whistle I went out to him, and it was only then that I realised he was in a bit of bother.
"The two boys will go to hospital now and hopefully they'll both be fine."
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