Evans says league didn’t do his side any justice
MOST of what John Evans has been trying to do with this Wicklow side seemed to fall into place on Sunday evening last.
The stunning arrival of his young players onto the inter-county scene must have been most pleasing for the Kerry native. The tally of 1-20 after a league campaign littered with totals just hovering over the 10-point mark had to be another success on a day of successes. The performances of his senior players, the likes of Dean Healy, Ross O’Brien, Seanie Furlong, Darren Hayden, was another huge positive the Wicklow manager and his backroom team will take from O’Moore Park and try and craft a plan to maintain a presence against Jim Gavin’s Dubs in the quarter-final.
“The result shows that we scored 1-20, that is fantastic scoring for a team that had only got 10, 12, 13 points in the league,” said Evans, after the Wicklow team had finished their warm-down on Sunday.
“But look, that league didn’t really do us justice at all. We were taken out by Carlow and Laois and fair enough they were better teams than us on the day. But we are a growing team.
“In the last few games in the last few months we’ve played a few teams where we have begun to score 15 and 17 points and we knew our game was coming and I just felt that the team were beginning to get that bit of confidence.
“Going back to the game, the first half, I think we kicked eight wides, they kicked seven, it was a poor enough standard really. In the second half it changed. We started to come into the game, they started to up the ante, the pace of the game rose from both teams and there were some very good scores,” he added.
The showing from Mark Jackson was vital for Wicklow’s cause. In John Evans’ mind, it wasn’t so much the seven points the Baltinglass man scored that were key, it was the penalty save.
“I suppose the one thing you’d have to say was that Mark Jackson’s save, not his kicking, his save, I think that was the turning point. It showed defiance, it showed resistance, it showed that Wicklow are going to stay today, we’re going to stay the distance. From there to the end there was battle in us.
“And we could have won it at the end. Eoin Murtagh’s punched shot was just that bit short, but look, we came here today that even if we made mistakes we were going to stay going, and we did. We threw off the shackles that was tying us in the first half and we played in the second half,” he added.
For John Evans it’s all about building a new team. Utilising the talent and experience of the older players and harnessing the abandon and ambition and energy of the next generation.
Avondale’s Saoirse Kearon is one of those players and after a few mistakes early on you wondered how it would affect the talented footballer, but his overall performance was simply superb, and Evans says he is there for just that reason.
“You won’t knock the confidence out of the likes of Saoirse (Kearon). He’s young and he’s brash and that’s why we have him in there, we have him in there for a reason. He’ll go again, and he’ll keep at it and his link up play for the goal with Cathal Magee and Darragh Fitz, these boys, we’re asking serious questions of these lads, and they’re responding.
“The only thing is we have now lost Saoirse, Darragh Fitzgerald and Mark Jackson from the under-20 team now, but look, it’s the Dubs in two weeks’ time,” he said.
The omission of Ross O’Brien from the starting 15 caught the attention ahead of the start of this game. However, the Rathnew star was called upon after Jamie Snell picked up a knock early on and he put in a tremendous performance.
“He (Ross O’Brien) had a tremendous game. The thing about Ross is, Ross has been injured for the last three weeks. The second thing about Ross is that he had exams, and people didn’t know this, and Ross wasn’t even to attend training. He’s top class. His presence is fantastic,” said Evans.
Darragh Fitzgerald’s goal impressed the Wicklow boss, but he was quick to point out that it was manufactured further out the field.
“No doubt about it, but it was manufactured out the field, you could see it coming the whole time. The timing of the players was top notch and look we practiced that.
“Darragh went in before the end of normal time and we asked serious questions of him and by god he responded.
“I’m not here to single out anybody but you had John McGrath, Seanie Furlong, I mean you had Mark Kenny, he was everywhere and anywhere, and there were a good few 50-50 balls put into him that he won. Mark showed tremendous character, and Staff (James Stafford) was tremendous. And the guys that came in, the Conor Healy, Johnny Crowe and Eoin Murtagh were excellent.
And I suppose, tactically, releasing Dean Healy and keeping Kevin (Murphy) to centre-back and getting Ross into the full-back line, that sort of shored up our defence.
Regarding the Dubs, Evans says that the game should be in Aughrim, but that one way or the other, they are best team in the country and he feels that they will do as they please regardless of where it is played.
“I wouldn’t see any problems with the Dubs coming to Aughrim, we’d welcome them. I mean, if the Dubs want to beat us by 10, 20 or 30 points they’ll do that regardless of what field it’s in. My thing is that the Dubs are wonderful footballers, they’re the best team in the country and now they’re playing the worst team in the county. There’d be a fabulous welcome in Aughrim,” he added.