Steelstown Ladies manager Cusack labels senior final victory over Glen 'best display of season'

Steelstown joint captains Ciara McGurk and Aoife McGough receive the Senior Championship trophy from Sean Hamill on Saturday afternoon. Photo: George Sweeney

Steelstown Ladies manager Thomas Cusack has praised his 'four in a row' champions after they produced a season's best performance to retain their Derry county crown against Glen at Foreglen on Saturday.

First half goals from Emma Doherty (pen) and Ciara McGurk set the Brian Ogs on their way to an emphatic 2-11 to 0-03 victory over a Watty Graham's side who had inflicted Steelstown's first Derry championship defeat in three years back in September.

There was never any suggestion lightning would strike twice on Saturday and Cusack had nothing but praise for how well his players had bounced back from that shock defeat.

"It's another one in the bag and it's a great feeling," explained the Steelstown manager, "Glen asked a lot of questions of us in the first 10 or 15 minutes and they took their opening score well. They were playing composed football at that time and it took us a while to get control but it's great to get it over the line.

"I would say today, in this final, that was the best we have played this year. It's nice to peak at the right time but, no, today's display was probably our best performance of the year.

"You could pick out half a dozen individual performances; everyone was excellent and then Orla McGeough was superb again. All the girls played well. Our pass and move game, coming off the shoulder, all the stuff we have been doing in training, it all came off today and we are delighted."

Steelstown are ‘four in a row’ champions

Emma Doherty's 13th minute penalty proved the platform upon which Steelstown established control with Cusack admitting it was a huge shot in the arm after an opening spell in which Glen had been dominating possession.

"The penalty was a big moment because goals win games," reflected Cusack.

"We were on top when we got the two goals but then we just built on them. The two goals allowed us to play possession football and pick off our passes to get the rest of our scores."We were well up for this final. Since that defeat back in September, it spurred the girls on. They came in to training with a different attitude. They knew they had work to do after that game, they knew this would be a year when they really had to dig deep and everyone of them did that. They really pushed on after that game."