A tally of 12 wides, including nine in the first half, and an injury-time penalty miss cost Portlaoise dearly in their Leinster club SFC semi-final loss to Kilmacud Crokes.

Manager Malachy McNulty was left to rue those missed opportunities, telling Midlands 103 afterwards: “Look it, if I was to sum that game up, we came up intent on winning the game. Kilmacud had a range of opportunities and took them. We had a range of opportunities and we didn’t take them, it’s as simple as that.

“There’s an old saying of course, Niall Rigney was telling me inside a moment ago, ‘you can’t win a game in the first half but you can certainly lose it’. To cough up 1-10 before we even started playing was very disappointing factor, absolutely.”

Reflecting on Craig Rogers' last-minute penalty, which would have forced extra-time if it had been scored, McNulty said: “If you were looking for me at that time, I’d have a very cold look on my face because it’s not in until it’s in and it’s a tough ask to step up and take it. And it’s unlucky – it could have been anyone stepping up to take it. But Craig stepped up, it takes a lot of courage.

“He hit it maybe a bit off the ground and it was a perfect height for the goalkeeper to get a hand to it so look wasn’t to be on the day. We could still be out on the park there now had it gone in.”

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