‘Lot of positives so let’s bring the right attitude again now’

RIGHT off the bat it was clear that Ronan McCarthy was in top form after his Cork side got their National Football League campaign off to the best possible start. McCarthy, has been looking for positives for quite a while was delighted to be able to point out a few reasons for cheer after seeing off Offaly by seven in front of less than 2,500 football fans.

“It’s a good start to the league. In 2018, we lost our first game, we drew last year. When you don’t win your first game you are immediately under pressure, a tenseness comes about the next match, and then you feel if you don’t win the next match you are in deep trouble already at the start of the league so it’s great to win the first game.

“You probably need 10 points to get out of the division. If you lose your first game, then you need to win five of your remaining six matches to guarantee yourself promotion. We have come out of a difficult game, we controlled it well at the end and we have our two points.

“We have a lot of positives like four Under 20s started, Peter Murphy came on and made his debut, Tadhg Corkery came on and did well, Ciarán Sheehan obviously back, a lot of fellas like Kevin Crowley, Seán Powter, Sam Ryan were back. Overall, it’s been a positive evening for us.”

A nd as if that wasn’t good enough the manner of the victory was also very pleasing for the manager.

“It’s great to win coming from behind, we were 0-7 to 0-3 down, and in fairness they got some marvellous scores. They caused us problems but we kept the head, we were a point down at half-time and our second half was nice and controlled. Michéal [Martin] had to make a very good save at one stage but we coughed up goal chances at the other end that we should have taken.

“Overall, happy to get the win, we said during the week it was going to be a difficult game and it was, so we are glad to get over it.”

While there was plenty right about Cork’s display there were a few issues as well with players, particularly in the first half running up blind alleys.

“We felt we caused a lot of our own problems, we turned over the ball, we were hit on the break on the counter attack a lot of the time, we carried the ball into contact, and to be fair to Offaly, they hassled and harried us.

“If you give the ball away high up the pitch, between the ‘45 and ‘65, you are wide open at the other end no matter how many players you have back. That was disappointing. We wanted to be more controlled with the ball in the second half and generally we were.”

McCarthy has long been searching for a quality bench and last Saturday night those chosen to come in impressed the head tactician.

“The subs made an impact but for some of our newer players it was a baptism of fire. Straight into senior inter-county football. It was good for them to see it, it was a hard night for some, but that’s why we put them in and they’ll learn and come back stronger from it.”

After last year’s difficulties with the pitch at Páirc Uí Chaoimh McCarthy was happy to give the new surface a clean bill of health.

“The pitch was perfect. We trained here on Tuesday night and it’s absolutely perfect to play football on and a credit to everyone involved. It [a big, wide pitch] suits us does and I thought it might have suited our younger players a bit more today but that’s not the way it transpired. Some of our newer players found it a tough night but that’s part and parcel of the learning process.”

McCarthy was pleased with how things went, particularly for three players that will be looking for a starting berth the next day.

“Yeah it’s great [to have Ciarán Sheehan and Seán Powter back]. I mentioned earlier Sam Ryan had a Grade 4 tear back in May, could have been a career ender. Powter obviously has had his issues for two years.

“Ciarán has been away and even for them, people take for granted 70 minutes of inter-county football. It is a big ask and they’ve all come through. We’ve got people in off the bench. Overall a difficult game for us but one we saw out well in the end.

“Lot of positives so let’s bring the right attitude again now to

the