Finn Harps manager Ollie Horgan says the pain of relegation from the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division is "hurting" him but admitted that his side did not deserve to stay up over the course of the season.
In a battle of the bottom two at Finn Park on Friday night, it was UCD who emerged victorious, securing a place in the relegation play-off by coming from a goal down to defeat Harps 3-1 and ending the home side's four-year stint in the top division.
Horgan has been in charge of Finn Harps since 2013 and is the longest serving of the Premier Division's current managers.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game, the Galway native would not be drawn on his longer-term future at the Donegal club but took pride in the squad's connection with the home support during a difficult season.
"The club is here years before me and it'll be here years after me whenever that may be. Look, I walked away last year and people who I admire within the board asked me to stay and to try and put a team together to try and stay in the division and we fell short on that," he said.
"I knew last year and I said it, if this was about me, I'd have ran a mile. But I didn't. It was about the club and it's a hell of a lot bigger - the club - than me.
"Managers comes and go, board members come and go but supporters stay the same and to be fair to them, tonight they had several opportunities where they could have turned on us over the season and they didn't - and of all years.
"They saw what we try and put into it but I think this year, I have huge pride in them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to win them over or anything like that, but maybe tonight and all season at home, there's a lot of pride there and a huge connection with them, especially when we weren't going well and they're hurting tonight and by God I'm hurting here trying to put a brave face on it. But I've got to and I will. We're as tough as nails but it's hurting and there's no point in thinking anything different."
Horgan added that UCD deserved to stay up and that Finn Harps did not do enough to avoid automatic relegation.
"Over the course of the season, results won't lie and we probably had several opportunities to kick out of the bottom one and we didn't take them," he said.
"To be fair to UCD there, they deserved to win it. They've beaten us three times out of four and all we can do is congratulate them, wish them well in the play-offs.
"We've had great nights here where we've won modestly. We've no one to blame bar ourselves in that manner."
Ahead of the season, Horgan had said that the 2022 campaign would be the toughest of his time in charge due to the turnover in personnel and a drawn-out off-season in trying to source players. And he felt that but for being neck and neck with UCD throughout much of the season, Harps may have gone down earlier in different circumstances.
"Probably the intention would have been to try and get better as the season went along and there were patches where we did get better but fell short like a 2-1 defeat or a 1-0 defeat against better sides higher up the table," he said.
"To put it this way, UCD were probably delighted we were there and we were probably delighted that they were there to keep each other company because if it was another season we might have been relegated weeks ago.
"However, last year, 20 points would have got you to the play-off because Longford I think only finished on 14. So probably it's horses for courses but results don't lie.
"Was the writing on the wall? Not really no. But we felt we could get a short-term kick out of the players. Unfortunately we went 1-0 up (against UCD) and we didn't get the ball back until it was 1-1 and that's probably where we didn't manage that game and there were several examples of that during the season."
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