Kierans tips Louth to bounce back at HQ

WAYNE Kierans is backing his players to bounce back from Sunday’s opening round national league defeat to Longford when they take on Laois in Croke Park on Saturday afternoon (3.00).

The Reds had two players sent off and Kierans was banished to the stand on a frustrating afternoon at the Gaelic Grounds.

And while he felt some of the decisions to brandish cards were poor it was an incident that the match officials missed that really angered the new Louth boss.

‘We just don’t seem to get those decisions,’ he said of the incident that left Bevan Duffy needing treatment. ‘I thought in terms of the sending off and in terms of who wasn’t sent off from Longford’s point of view for blatantly elbowing one of four players in the mouth.

‘I can’t not speak about that when I’m standing 15 yards away from it and I see a guy get elbowed in the mouth. There’s frees that will go with you, and there are frees that will go against you, but when you see a guy getting absolutely busted under the referee’s nose it’s difficult to take.

‘I just don’t understand how all the officials missed it. They obviously did miss it because it would have been a straight up red, but look, we just have to get on with it now at this stage.’

With Conor Early and Tommy Durning dismissed, Longford’s numerical advantage told on the home stretch, but Kierans insisted he won’t be dwelling on the defeat.

‘It’s all about recovery now,’ he said. ‘It’s not about the Laois game yet, it’s about preparation and recovery and then next Saturday night it’s obviously about the game.

‘We’ll be looking forward to it. The short turnaround might be a good thing, the fact that we can get out so quickly to try and put some wrongs right.’

On the injury front the manager revealed that William Woods is edging closer to full fitness, but Ciaran Byrne and Conor Grimes are a ‘little bit away.

‘William is getting closer all the time so it’ll be a big boost to have him back. Maybe Laois might come a wee bit too soon but he’s not too far away.’

Kierans wants his team to address a worrying tendency to start slowly at HQ on Saturday, but while he was bitterly disappointed with his side’s first-half display he was delighted with their response after the break.

‘We definitely could have got something out of it. It was looking really tight and it could have gone either way at the end, but I think they had a little bit more experience in the closing stages.

‘It was a great reaction from us in the second half. Not a fantastic first half again but the second half was much, much better. We got ourselves in a position where we could have got something out of the game and we could’ve won the game.

‘But, we just couldn’t edge in front and when you’re chasing the game a little bit, and trying to get that winning point they broke away well and they got some good scores.

‘We were just lacking that little bit of cohesion and that little bit of intensity and that little bit of good decision making.

‘We can’t seem to get that from the outset but then the second half again, they came out and did really well with all sorts of stuff going on. All sorts of decisions being made and credit to them for that. I’d be very, very proud of them in that second half, but it just, feels a wee bit hollow at the minute because we’ve got nothing.’

While overall the first-half display was poor, Kierans pointed out that the home side made a bright start.

‘We got the first couple of scores and then we were keeping them out, we got some good turnovers and I think, the goal was poor. It was flicked into the net and he shouldn’t have been able to do that from our point of view. T

‘That obviously knocked us back a bit, and then we didn’t build on that opening five minutes. We were flat and we weren’t flowing as much as I’d like. But, we put that right in the second half. I know it’s a cliche but they absolutely gave everything so I’d be pretty pleased from that point of view.

‘We just wanted to get wee bit of luck with that wind to get a wee bit of momentum and confidence in what, essentially is a new group really.

‘But, look, it’s not to be. The fact that we didn’t win a home game doesn’t mean we can’t win an away game, simple as that. If the performance keeps going upwards and upwards we’ll get our wins and we’ll get the points that we need in this league.

‘We’re all down at the minute because we got nothing out of the game but there’s positives there and

I’m just after saying to the boys if we keep working, sticking together and keep maintaining and keep improving, we’ll be okay.’