Nicci Daly admitted Ireland's women hockey team hadn't been consistent enough over their five pool games as their first ever Olympics ended today.
Having beaten South Africa in their first game but then lost a crucial clash with India yesterday, Sean Dancer's side needed to overcome the reigning champions Great Britain in Tokyo today to progress to the quarter-finals.
But it didn't happen for Ireland, and another battling defensive performance at the Oi Stadium wasn't enough.
Goals by Susannah Townsend from a 17th minute penalty corner and Hannah Martin from Ellie Rayer’s cross just into the third quarter put GB in a commanding position.
In the final five minutes, Ireland's world-class keeper Ayeisha McFerran was sacrificed as Dancer went with 11 outfield players, but to no avail.
Daly, who was applauded by both sides before the start to mark her 200th international cap, said: "We were confident going out against GB because we played them a good bit this year.
"We have played them a lot over the past few years – we know them quite well.
"We knew we could beat them so we felt really good going out. We thought maybe it would happen for us.
"We just didn’t really perform consistently, it’s a bit disappointing, but it is what it is. It’s been a fantastic experience.
"It’s the Olympics and at times we definitely matched the best in the world and we can be proud of that. And we can be proud of the team today.
"I think there’ll be a lot of positives to take forward for the team going into the next cycle.”
Dancer added: “It just highlights why the Olympics is the pinnacle of our sport.
"It's the top teams competing, it is the end of the cycle of what everybody is trying to get to and, in the end, everybody can beat everybody on their day at the Olympics so that’s the first thing: knowing that you’re always in with a shot.
"And then the second thing, that the game against India was one we targeted to win and then being back-to-back against GB was always going to be a tight turnaround.
"We always knew coming in that this would be a tough couple of days for us."
