“This will not be our last foray or my last foray” - Hetherington

It was a disappointing end to the season for Newbridge on Sunday in Armagh but joint manager Gary Hetherington has backed the group to push on.

The back-to-back Derry champions missed out on a first Ulster final spot in 55 years on penalties to Scotstown.

“As everybody says, level of physicality of that team (Scotstown) compared to us,” he said. “We matched them, we matched them totally, off the ball, on the ball. Look, I think if we want to get better, we'll get better.

"Hopefully we'll be back again, that this will not be our last foray or my last foray into it,” he added. It's our centenary year but, look, we'd planned to get to this stage, without talking too loudly.

“Look, it's a long way back and, in the Derry championship, it's not going to be easy to get back here again. Scotstoun do it time and time again and that's something that Newbridge has to raise up to.”

Slaughtneil seek to make a statement with looming Loughrea clash

Slaughtneil secures sixth Four Seasons Cup

Rafferty's family legacy powers Glenullin's historic chase for Ulster glory

“It's just unbelievable, just to see how much it means to everybody”

Hetherington was speaking outside a devastated Newbridge dressing room. Inside, the players were broken as they picked through the pieces of a game they shot into life in midway through the second half of normal time.

“It is (disappointing) for a number of reasons because we came here expecting to win, we had prepared to win and obviously we wanted to win.

“That's what caused more devastation. I don't think we could have done much more to be fair.

“There was was a lot in it and a lot of circumstances. We'd probably feel hard done by it on a lot of things but it's not going to change the result. They're an excellent team; they've been on the block a long time and they've brought a lot of youth.

“We thought, we thought we came here with a good chance and we thought we could win it.”