D-day in Derry as Louth stare into the abyss
LOUTH manager Wayne Kierans is hoping to appeal the decision that saw full forward Sam Mulroy sent off against Offaly. Overturning the decision would deem the Naomh Mairtin man eligible for this Sunday’s crucial trip to Derry.
‘If there is video evidence, we will be,’ Kierans explained. ‘I saw the incident and I don’t have a problem with anything Sam did because it wasn’t a red card. The referee, fair play to him, he tried to explain to me after the game what it was for, but it certainly wasn’t for a striking offence so it is something we might look at on the video.’
Rooted to the bottom of the table and three points from safety, Kierans wouldn’t be drawn into relegation talk, but nor did he try to downplay how important this Sunday’s game is going to be.
‘We’ve only three played,’ Kierans stated. ‘We have to get two points on the board next weekend. I always talk about the performance. We need the performance against Derry and we need to get two points on the board. We’re not talking promotion or relegation. It is a difficult position no doubt about that, no getting away from that. We’ve put ourselves in that position, but it is all about recovering and getting two points next week now. That’s a must-win game now,’ he added.
In the Offaly game, Kierans laid out the specific areas that have put his team in such a precarious position - simply giving the ball away.
‘If any team gives the ball away in any division at this level you’re asking for trouble,’ he said.
‘Basically two mistakes up the field up in our attacking area they bounced back up the field and scored two goals. So that was disappointing. They had 2-7 at half-time. Even if you go in conceding 1-7 at half-time, a seven-point lead, we would have ended up winning the game, well drawing at least. I didn’t think playing against the wind in the first half was the issue, it was some of the mistakes we made.
‘You might get away with it at club level, but not here. It’s an issue and we’ve spoken about the stats and how many possessions we lost against Tipperary. Today, there were a couple that we gave away as well and you are just handing opposition easy, easy scores.’
To compound matters, with his side coughing up the ball, Kierans felt that his side weren’t efficient enough going the other way after the break. A lack of composure in front of the posts reared its ugly head again.
‘When we did come out in the second half, we missed three chances,’ Kierans stated.
‘We missed an easy free and two points from play and that obviously would have given us the momentum a lot earlier in the half. We kept saying at half-time that we’ve 40 minutes to turn this around and we got back to a point, with some good, considered play and well-worked goals, but then we made bad decisions again. It’s that ‘composure’ word again.
‘Credit to the boys in the second half, I honestly thought when we had them down to a point that we could get something out of the game, but, unfortunately, then we made a few bad decisions. Overall, we just didn’t do enough.’
Louth will travel to face Derry who, under Rory Gallagher, are a team with defence at the forefront of their minds. That’s something his side haven’t faced so far this season, but the O’Connell’s man reckons the challenge is one his side can overcome.
‘It’s a totally different proposition, Kierans acknowledged. ‘We have a lot of work done on that. Look we are going to have to show a lot of composure next week when the pressure is really going to be on. So it is really going to test their mentality as well as everything else, but the boys are good lads. We had problems in the Tipp game and I felt we fixed them today, we just unearthed new problems today so I can’t argue with the work they do.
‘We just need to put the 70 minutes together. There was good parts to our play against Tipperary and then we finish poorly. We started poorly today and then finished relatively okay, I wouldn’t say strongly, but it is about getting it all together. It is about getting those individual mistakes out.
‘I said to them in the dressing-room, we won’t be shouting or screaming at anybody, we’re sticking together. We can improve, we will improve. There is no point in hiding now.’