Foley rues mistakes that led to goals

LIXNAW will rise again. Their day will come. They’ve got the talent, no question. Even so to talk now of the future comes as cold comfort to either the players or their management team. Finals are there to be won and they didn’t win. That hurts and it’ll keep on hurting until they put it right.

“I am disappointed for the lads because I think they played very well today for stages of that game and dominated the game hurling wise for most of the game, but conceded too many goals and that is the story of the game really,” Lixnaw coach Mark Foley said after the match.

Even there you’d have to have a certain amount of sympathy for the Lixnaw coach and his players. On Sunday afternoon they came across a force of nature in Aidan Boyle.

“It was just one of those days when everything went right for him and fair play to him,” Foley agreed.

“But from a defensive point of view and there is no point in denying it and papering over it or sugar-coating it. We would feel defensively that every one of the goals were preventable because you don’t get caught under the dropping ball against Ballyduff and we succumbed to that today.

“They are very good in the air and everyone knows that in Kerry and to be fair to them, when they got the ball inside in the full-forward line today they took their chances.”

One thing that would have frustrated the Limerick man was Lixnaw’s failure to push on when they had the advantage of an extra man. Fair enough it’s much easier said than done, but to win a title you’ve got to press home any advantage you might have.

“I think when you are trying to force the game and when you are a younger team it’s easy to fall into the trap of getting over enthusiastic and lumping the ball in on top of Mikey Boyle because it suits Mikey Boyle,” he commented.

“To be fair to the lads we hurled very well for long stages when on the ball, but without the ball is what decided the game and if you told me coming down here that we would score 1-19 I would think we would win the game by four or five points, but you cannot concede goals like that and win.”

While not seeking to make excuses – and giving Ballyduff their dues – Foley did agree that the loss of John Griffin before the game was massive.

“John was a huge loss in game like that of fine margins you need you need everyone who can influence the game and John is one our main influencers and he would have shown composure down the stretch when we had the extra man,” he said.

“When you have an extra man it is about not getting over anxious and lumping ball down on top of the opposition, you just look to find the extra man and that is where I suppose the old heads come in and Tweak was a loss, but I would not like to take from Ballyduff as they were outstanding today.”