Alastair McGilligan admitted that his Down side were beaten by a better team in yesterday's All-Ireland junior camogie final.

Speaking after Meath inflicted a second successive All-Ireland final defeat on the Mourne County, McGilligan said: "I am not going to pick out a certain incident and say it changed the game. I am not going to say the referee made a mistake or a girl over-carried - that would be an injustice to Meath."

McGilligan believes the outcome could have been different if key forward Niamh Mallon - who picked up a knee injury in training - had been fully fit.

"You can plan for any game and prepared, but you need that bit of luck. Niamh carried a knee injury into the semi-final and we got through it. She was coming on grand, but again there's that little bit of luck. There was 30 seconds left in training on Tuesday night and she twisted it again.

"You need all those things to go for you. You need all the players playing to the best of their ability - some did, some didn't, but that's finals," he added. Tweet

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