GAME AT A GLANCE
Campbell says they weren’t at the races
LOUTH full back Dermot Campbell was a the one shining light in Louth’s defeat on Sunday. In his first full season, the Dreadnots man has settled into the team really well, but he didn’t try to sugar-coat what was a crushing loss.
‘Really disappointing result,’ he said. ‘I thought we got back into it at the start of the second half and then they got the penalty. I just thought they were coming at us too easy and we nearly started opening them up when we were six or seven down which is disappointing. But we had lots of chances in the first half we just didn’t take them, especially with the breeze. We just started panicking.’
With the venue change and what was at stake against a side just above Louth in the table, Campbell felt things were going well beforehand, but he was at a loss to explain how it all unravelled on the day.
‘We were confident coming in, knowing we could do the job,’ Campbell admitted. ‘It just didn’t go for us on the day. I can’t really put my finger on it at the moment, we just didn’t play well as a team collectively or individually. It just seemed that Leitrim were that little bit hungrier than us.
‘Our discipline wasn’t good enough. Especially in the first half, we got lads stopped but then there was a pull on the jersey or a pull on the arm. That’s something we have to look at.
‘The underfoot conditions were actually very tough out there but it was no excuse, same for both teams. Sometimes when a lad steps you, you’re first reaction is to get him stopped and our tackling wasn’t good enough.’
Campbell reflected on what he felt was a tough debut campaign overall, one that lacked consistency, but the full back sees an opportunity for his teammates to restore some much needed pride in Cork.
‘We were so close in some games,’ he noted. ‘I know the first game especially, we didn’t feel we played well at all and we played in fits and starts in other games. But you have to put it together for the full 70 minutes and we haven’t done that.
‘Really unlucky last week (versus Derry), unlucky against Offaly, but today we were just beaten by a better team, a hungrier team and look, we have two games left to try and restore a bit of pride in the jersey, We go down to Cork with nothing to lose and we just have to try and put a performance in and get some confidence back.’