Finalagony forhurlers
The Coleraine side went down 1-11 to 2-06 to St Brigid’s Cloughmills in Ballymena.
A two-point margin was all that separated the teams at the end.
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Hide AdThere was not much between them in the first half and they reached half-time level on 1-05 each.
But Cloughmills put in a strong second half and hit four points in succession before Derry’s champions Eoghan Rua hit back with a late goal.
However, a late Owen Kinney point for Clougmills helped wrap up the win.
“We felt that, given the level of fitness of this team, if we were in contention near the end, we would have a great chance,” said Passmore.
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Hide Ad“And we were in contention. Colm [McGoldrick] had a chance, but the ball wouldn’t rise for him.
“They took their chances, we didn’t and that’s how it is some days. Fair play to Cloughmills.
“From our point of view, I think that we gave it a good lash. We have proved that we deserved to be here. We play fair. We are a good hurling team looking to better ourselves and we will continue to do that in Eoghan Rua. We’ll be back.”