Frankie Dolan expressed his delight at seeing his St Brigid's side reach a Connacht final, but warned his players they will need to develop a clinical edge if they are to triumph against Corofin next time out.
The Roscommon champions made light work of Leitrim's Aughawillan, rolling to a 2-18 to 1-07 victory at Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, booking a place in the provincial decider against the experienced Galway outfit.
And while he was clearly thrilled at seeing his young team progress, Dolan was already looking ahead to the major lift in standards required to compete with Corofin, who dispatched Mayo rivals Castlebar in MacHale Park..
"I'm delighted to be back in a Connacht final. The players bought into what we put in front of them and thankfully all the hard work has really paid off," joint manager Dolan told RTÉ Sport.
"You could see the fitness there today. But it will be a whole different ball game the next day. It'll be the hardest game we've had in a number of years. Whether we'll be up to that standard at the moment, it's difficult to say.
"We've blooded a lot of young players and it will be interesting to see where we are. We're coming up against a very experienced Corofin outfit, it's going to be a huge battle for us.
"As well as that we have a lot of injuries mounting up after today, and Ian Kilbride is away with the army, which is a massive loss to us. We'll have to assess what the treatment table is like this evening.
"Going into a Connacht final is huge for the club, but it'll be a huge task for us to win a Connacht championship this year."
"Going into a Connacht final is huge for the club, but it'll be a huge task for us to win a Connacht championship this year."
One area of improvement Dolan will be seeking is in front of the posts, as a combination of missed chances and a drop in intensity allowed Aughawillan remain in the game after Brigid's had roared to a 1-03 to 0-00 lead early on.
"It's a thing that's been happening all year, it's not just today," Dolan said.
"We're going in against Corofin, who are second or third favourites for the All-Ireland, so we have to be converting those chances against teams like that to have any hope. We need to be nailing them because if we don't we will not win a Connacht final.
"The game is put in front of us. We started the game brilliantly but we dropped our intensity midway through the first half and let them back into the game. I know the score was high enough but that's a huge worry for us and has been happening all year.
"If we want to win the cup in a few weeks' time we'll have to play that game for both halves as hard as we can go, because we are coming against a very experienced team, physcially, power-wise and, I suppose, in cuteness.
"A lot of their players have a lot more experience that we do."
