Cork City manager John Caulfield hailed his players' fighting spirit after they battled back from a goal down to beat Dundalk in the FAI Cup final on penalties.
The Leesiders sealed their first ever double after a 5-3 shootout win, with Kieran Sadlier scoring the winning spot-kick.
"It's fantastic," Caulfield told RTÉ Sport. "Real winners.
"You have to give it to the boys, you're one down, tremendous determination and grit.
"At the same time, you need to dig in and the determination and the will to win and never give up has been phenomenal. You just admire these guys."
Kieran Sadlier scores the winning penalty and Cork City retain the cup #FAIcupfinal pic.twitter.com/8RNQq6DSgn
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) November 5, 2017
Things looked ominous for Cork when Niclas Vemmelund gave the Lilywhites the lead four minutes into extra-time but an equaliser from substitute Achille Campion nine minutes from the end gave them the chance of glory from the spot.
"It wasn't easy today," admitted Caulfield. "We started very well, the first 30 minutes were good and we had a chance to go ahead, maybe two.
"In the second half we were on the back foot and hadn't played particularly well but at the end we could have won the match in normal time.
"In that first period of extra-time they were down on their knees. We tried to rally them to give it another go and in fairness to them, in the second period of extra-time we were good."
Cork claimed their first league title in 12 years last month but their form tailed off the closing stages after a superb start that included a 22-game unbeaten run.
Caulfield feels that that meant their achievement was perhaps underappreciated, especially given the loss of key men throughout the season, such as Sean Maguire, who finished as league top scorer despite joining Preston in July.
"All season they probably haven't got the credit they deserve but to win a double is incredible," said Caulfield.
"The first two thirds of the season, we won 21 games out of 22. We lost our top goalscorer, who's now an Irish international, we lost our captain (John Dunleavy to a knee injury), an U21 international left-back Kevin O'Connor.
"No team would have survived that but these guys dug in and got to the cup final on true merit."
