Burt manager McDermott "proud" of Ulster winning squad

Fiachra Gill's injury time winner in extra-time provided the Hollywood finale to a game which will be talked about in the club for years to come as Burt overcame a first half red card for Ronan McDermott to pip Lavey in injury time of extra-time, having only salvaged a draw in the FIFTH minute of injury time in normal time.

The Donegal champions simply refused to accept defeat and McDermott, whose team also won their provincial semi-final against Con Magee's with 14 men last week, said he was lost for words at the exploits of a special group of players.

"I don't really know how I begin to put that into words. Unbelievable. That effort that those men put in there; proud, I'm unbelievably proud of each and every one of them," he explained

"I said to them before the game about going out and playing for that jersey and playing for everybody in the stand and the players did it. They were outstanding; a credit to this club, each and every one of them. A credit to their families, I couldn't be more proud, it was remarkable."

McDermott said his players deserved all the plaudits for the victory and praised how they coped with the loss of their influential No. 14 a minute before half-time.

"I hope we're not making a habit of that (going down to 14 players) because it's not good when you are standing there on the line let me tell you," he laughed.

"Yeah, down to 14 men two weeks in a row but it did give us that wee kick. I would say when a team goes down to 14, they know they have to work whereas sometimes with 15, I'm not saying you get lazy, but sometimes you can lose focus.

"This was all about our players, they were unbelievable. I cannot fault them. I'll admit I was a bit worried when we went down to 14 because Lavey are very good on the ball, they like to pass the ball through and that spare man, you know yourself, a spare man in defence it means there's a lot of tiring work to put in as a forward line, but our boys put it in.

"Conor (Gartland) was brilliant," he replied when quizzed on a player who was most people's man of the match, "He put a block in there under the stand towards the end and I turned around to the bench and said 'that man is unreal'. He deserves every bit of credit and praise he gets. He was phenomenal."

Burt will now meet the British champions in the All Ireland Series but McDermott say's planning for that tie can wait until they've properly celebrated Saturday's historic win.

"You only have to look around here at these scenes to know what this means to us. And not only to us as a team, but to the whole club, it's unreal. The amount of supporters who turned out here and the way they got behind us, we can't thank them enough.”