No joy for Wicklow

Missed chances back to haunt them

LEITRIM WICKLOW 2-15 0-10

MISSED chances came back to haunt Wicklow as they crashed to a despairing defeat in Carrick-on-Shannon that sees them rooted to the bottom of Division 4 with the final game null and void.

In the opening 28 minutes, Wicklow created a number of goal chances but failed to take any as Diarmuid McKiernan saved from James Stafford at the expense of a point and twice from Gearoid Murphy, while a number of balls were dropped short as well as the Garden County side’s struggles in front of goal continue.

Aside from the fact that the visitors to Carrick-on-Shannon couldn’t finish, those opening 28 minutes were hugely positive for Wicklow. John Evans’ men were expending serious energy all over the field. James Stafford was rotating from full-forward to midfield. He scored three points in the first half as well as claiming a magnificent mark and working tirelessly to put Wicklow on the front foot.

Gone was the isolation of the inside line as seen in the Laois and Carlow game. James Stafford or Mark Kenny or John McGrath were being supported with runners and it was this more intelligent attack that served to create the goal chances, which, alas, were not converted.

“In the first 25 minutes there was only one team looking like they were going to do something, and that was Wicklow,” said John Evans after the game.

“We spurned two very easy points, and I suppose if Stafford had continued in he’d have stuck the ball in the net, but it went over and a good save by the goalkeeper. And young Murphy (Gearoid) had two or three chances. We spurned a couple of very, very easy chances and we were creating great chances. And often the chances you don’t take yourself are the ones that really, really hurt you.

“For some reason or another, when it wasn’t happening, you could see that our heads were beginning to die. Now, you could still see that the game was going extremely well up until three minutes before half-time when they kicked two or three points, so they went from a two-point game to a five-point, a little flourish before half-time.

“Little things you thought should have happened didn’t happen. You know, we pulled on a ball when we should have picked it up and put it over the bar, these things they all eat into you when you don’t take the opportunities.

“That first half was a classic case of we not taking our opportunities. That certainly came back to haunt us in the second half because when Leitrim got a run on us, they certainly took full advantage.

“You could see Leitrim’s confidence growing, particularly when they got the second goal,” he added.

An excellent start with points from James Stafford and Mark Kenny (Stafford’s point coming after McKiernan pushed over a goal-bound rocket) was quelled when Leitrim replied with two points of their own.

Two more points from Stafford kept the Wicklow tally rising, but Leitrim had found the net through full-forward Keith Beirne who took a pass from Eoin Ward and slipped home past Mark Jackson. In fairness to Wicklow, they didn’t panic and Mark Kenny’s fine point after 31 minutes left only two points between the teams at 1-04 to 0-05.

However, the next four minutes probably decided the outcome of this game. Two Keith Beirne points (frees) and a fine Donal Wrynn effort from play pushed Leitrim ahead by five and put doubts in the minds of the Wicklow men.

Credit to the Garden County men, they came out fighting in the second half. Move after move swept down the field, but they just couldn’t convert, with wides or poor final balls to James Stafford draining the momentum from their spirited attacks.

Where Wicklow struggled raising flags of any colour, Leitrim could manage it much more easily. Emlyn Mulligan swung over a stunning point after five minutes off the outside of his right boot after five minutes. John McGrath replied to make it 1-08 to 0-05.

By the time Conor Byrne stroked over his excellent score shortly after entering the fray, Leitrim were leading by 1-11 to 0-07 and when Mulligan slotted home past Jackson the game was over with 23 minutes on the clock.

Wicklow lost Paul Merrigan to a black card after 24 minutes and had collapsed to a 2-15 to 0-07 deficit by the time James Stafford popped over two fine points and Dan Kelly swung over a late free to close the scoring at 2-15 to 0-10.

“We came out fighting in the second half. We had four attacks and got no score. And they went down the field and scored. Guys get doubts in their heads.

“I’ve no excuses. Leitrim were the better team. They grew in confidence as the game went on. We certainly didn’t help our own cause by not taking the chances. That aspects, certainly when you’re a team that’s learning and you make mistakes it affects you a lot more.

Gearoid Murphy’s early withdrawal was unfortunate. The talented Annacurra man had worked himself into very good positions.

“Gearoid got into great positions, he definitely had four clear cut chances,” said John Evans. “We just felt that when it came to the fifth one and he pulled on the ball on the ground when he might have picked it up, this is a very young player, a very talented player, he’s still very young and you don’t want to put them through the trauma, you take him out and you rescue them.

“We had some good players to come in with Chris Heaslip and Conor Byrne. We have very, very young players. We must nurture them along. There are days when they will do everything right and days when they will do everything wrong. They will certainly put this down to experience...a not so good experience.

There was no Seanie Furlong on the starting 15 on the panel. We asked the Wicklow boss about the abscene of the Kiltegan man.

“He’s building a house (Seanie Furlong), he’s done something with his back and there was a wedding, so he wasn’t able to commit to this weekend, and he was looking for a bit of timeout and he took it. And of course, we were missing Dean Healy then on top of that, I suppose, if you had those boys when things were going right. And who’s to say that there are a couple of boys out there that might come in. I’d be confident that Seanie will come back, he was just looking for some time out.

“I’ve been in dressing rooms like that. It’s about taking the positives out of it. The positives you are looking at there were in the first half, had we taken our chances. The second positive was that we came out in the second half and we took the game to them. We’re not scoring, that’s the obvious thing that’s happening. Down in Carlow we won 22 out of 26 kick outs. We weren’t as good by any means today, but, again, we went down the field plus 18 times we turned them over, that’s 40 times and we still only scored 12 points. We have to get our scoring niche right and if we can get that.

“We had two guys outside him (James Stafford) and one coming off the shoulder. We had two coming early and one coming later. Funny enough, as it fell to Gearoid, and as I said to Gearoid in there, “get your head up, you’ll have plenty of days of football”. You protect the young lads, that’s what you do in that dressing room, you protect the young lads and you put it down to experience, but don’t beat yourself up about it.

“Lots of positives. In the last four games, between Antrim, Laois and Carlow we had three and a half and four minutes where we conceded 1-02 and 1-03, that three minutes today before half-time when we let them get three points on the trot, it was a flourish that shifted and changed the whole game. Those sorts of things we’re learning from”.

Scorers – Leitrim: Keith Beirne 1-06 (5f), Brendan Gallagher 0-02, Emlyn Mulligan 1-01, Colm Moreton 0-01, Donal Wrynn 0-01, Dean McGovern 0-01, Jack Heslin 0-01, Cillian McGloin 0-01, Ronan Kennedy 0-01.

Wicklow: James Stafford 0-05, Mark Kenny 0-02, Conor Byrne 0-01, John McGrath 0-01, Dan Kelly 0-01.