The bookmakers would have laid short odds on Kilcoo’s Paul Devlin finding the back of Connlan Bradley’s net just before half-time in Sunday's Ulster Club SFC Final at the Athletic Grounds.
After making a nightmare start and finding themselves five points down after 10 minutes, the defending Ulster and All-Ireland champions hit back with a goal from defender Aaron Branagan and they would have taken an unlikely two-point into the half-time interval if Devlin’s penalty was successfully converted.
Jerome Johnston was fouled by Glen full-back Ryan Dougan in the final seconds of stoppage time, but Devlin’s penalty grazed the outskirts of the right post and wide.
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In a game of such fine margins, it was a huge shot in the arm for Watty Graham’s and a monumental blow for the Magpies, but Conleith Gilligan expects Devlin and the rest of the Kilcoo players to bounce back from Sunday’s loss.
“How many times has he pulled us out of the fire with a free, a penalty or a goal? He has been magic and that will not affect him,” said Gilligan.
“I’ve no doubt he’ll dispatch the next one. He has been brilliant for us for so long.
“Obviously, you’ve a couple of boys who are on the older side of it, but the vast majority of that team are very young.
"There’s a group of players coming through who have been brilliant for Kilcoo. They’ll learn from that game. It would be nice to win every game and every cup and everything is brilliant, but that’s not life.
“A lot of times young players learn a hell of a lot more about themselves in how they face a defeat and how they come out of that.
“They get a wee bit of a break now, but it is very short. Young players will be back into the gym and they’ll try and be better. These boys have that mindset and that’s what they’ll do.”
Gilligan didn’t feel that his side’s poor start counted against them as they were well in the game until the closing stages.
Alex Doherty’s stoppage time goal was the icing on the cake for Malachy O’Rourke side, who were more clinical on the day that Kilcoo.
“We have had bad starts before - that wasn’t unusual - there was no real panic,” reflected Gilligan.
“We got the goal and we’d a couple of chances to tip on and go in leading at half-time. That didn’t happen and they had the platform in the second half that we probably needed.
“When you look back at it, the game ebbed and flowed for a long time. They got three frees on the bounce at the start of the second half and gave them a bit of a platform. We kicked a few wides and dropped a few short when we needed to work it into better positions.
“We couldn’t just get inside for those scores. The longer it goes down the straight, the more you have to go for it. To be fair, with the pace and power they have, they caught us at the back for that goal and that was the difference.”
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