'Speechless’ Evergreen boss hails ‘fantastic achievement’ as Kilkenny club reach FAI Junior Cup Final
The last four tie was played in Umbro Park, Castlebar in front of a large Evergreen support
Evergreen boss Gary Maher admitted he was “lost for words” after his side booked their place in the FAI Junior Cup final with a dramatic victory on Sunday.
The Kilkenny club have returned to the FAI Junior Cup Final for the first time since 2017 after a merited 3-1 victory over Castlebar Celtic in County Mayo.
“I'm lost for words at the minute, speechless. I'm absolutely just over the moon,” Maher told Kilkenny People Sport on the full-time whistle.
“We had a dream and, look, the dream is still alive and I don't know, I'm just speechless, lost for words now, just so delighted and so proud to be involved with this group of players. They're fantastic representatives of our great club, just a fantastic achievement.
“It's (the FAI Junior Cup) the holy grail of junior football,” Maher continued, adding, “this is a competition that our club has craved for many a year and we're just delighted now we're in the final two and look forward to a final in the next four weeks.”
For the Evergreen boss, Sunday’s last four tie was a rollercoaster of emotions. However, the celebrations will be short lived with a final date against Coachford (Cork) scheduled for the first weekend in October.
“I suppose we'll take a few days off now, we've been going since June, all last season, we've only got three weeks off so we'll try and take a couple of days off now,” Maher commented, pledging, “we won't leave any stone unturned, we'll obviously enjoy tonight, enjoy the trip home and look, preparations will probably start as early as nine o'clock tomorrow morning but look, it’s something to be proud of and something we can't look forward to but the next four weeks are just going to be fantastic.”