Mayday if Dubs don’t improve
DUBLIN captain Sinéad Aherne accepts the Blues must improve to secure a first ever Lidl Ladies NFL Division 1 crown against Mayo this Sunday.
The All-ireland champions were fortunate to come through their semi-final clash against Galway in the previous round, Nicole Owens emerging with a brilliant winning goal late on.
Mick Bohan’s charges will be coming up against a Mayo side who have been hitting considerable tallies in the latter stages of the League, including 6-11 against Monaghan, before they knocked out holders Cork in the semi-final.
“In the last couple of games they’ve put up some really big scores so their forwards have been going really well,” said Aherne ahead of a repeat of last September’s All-ireland senior decider.
“They’ve a lot of youth mixed with experience, and having the likes of Fiona Mchale pushed into the forward line as well.
“I think defensively, we need to be very solid to make sure that they’re not getting on top of us.
“We made a lot of mistakes the last day. Our turnover count was a bit big and we tried to force things a little bit.
“Some of the games, we’ve been in tight situations and we managed to get ourselves out of it. We did that as the [Galway] game went on but we can’t afford to give Mayo a head start the way we did against Galway because I think they have the quality to push it throughout the game.
“I think we have to minimise our mistakes. Their forwards are strong so we need to keep it tight.”