‘We just need to get that break’
WE got a chance to speak with Johnny Magee on Monday, a day after his side’s defeat to Louth. We started by asking him for his overall thoughts.
“Disappointed, obviously, with the loss. We worked very hard over the last five or six weeks. On different occasions we had the capability of getting across the line and winning it. To get in that position and not get over that line is the real disappointing thing, that we were that close.”
There was very little between the teams, Magee believes, and if a couple of goal chances weren’t saved Wicklow could have won.
“I suppose, we were a point down going into the 67th minute and it was there for us. They tagged on a couple of scores. The ball was blocked down and they went down and put the ball over the bar so a two point swing.
“For me, they had a purple patch at the end of each half and that cost us. I felt overall we performed throughout the two halves and we had opportunities. Their ‘keeper pulled off good saves from John Crowe and from Darren Hayden and those are the opportunities that need to go in to win games. On another day they go in and that’s the difference between winning and losing.
“For me, they had their purple patch, we had our purple patch. I don’t think there was a big difference in terms of ability and I felt at time we had the better footballers when we really went at it.”
Wicklow waited until the 59th minute to make a substitution, a few minutes after Louth had won six kick outs in a row and Wicklow were under a lot of pressure in that sector of the field. Should Wicklow have acted quicker in making a change?
“Teams get a dominant period on you. Do you panic and make changes because a team has got a run on you? There was a period when they were dominating our kick out and we could have shown for it short for one or two and we were unlucky with the breaking ball on one or two.
“But if you look at it, we were a point down in the 67th minute and we got over that spell and we were still in a position to win the game.
“We brought Anto McLoughlin and John McGrath on in the 60th minute and there was 15 minutes still to go, the 10 minutes of ordinary time and five minutes of injury time. They were fresh legs. When you’re so close and the game is there to be won you have to trust them to ride out the team’s dominant period, you don’t go running to make changes.”
Wicklow’s performances this year have gone from the good to awful. There’s the good against Wexford and Louth mixed with the very bad against Carlow. Pinpointing why this happens is difficult.
Magee believes part of it is due to Wicklow’s early departure from the championship and the county team not being with each other four or five months of the year whereas the top teams are only away from each other for a couple of months of the year.
“We’ve had the lads for the last five or six weeks and we’ve been working and training on different things as a team and getting them right. It has given us time to work on things but we only get to play two or three matches. Hopefully we’ll go on a run in the qualifier, that’s our aim now, but would we benefit from having seven games in the summer time, if we switched the league to the summertime?
“It’s not four months away from a county team, it’s only six to eight weeks and the lads can get back up to that county standard of fitness. That’s one side of it.
“They always seem to raise their game when their written off, and it seems to be a general thing, not just with my teams. Over the years Wicklow have an extra determination to prove people wrong. We’ve shown over the past three summers that when we apply ourselves and when we stick to the game plan and when we go and put it all on the line we’re good enough to compete, to put ourselves in a position to win.
“We just need to get that break and that bit of luck to get over the line. There’s been a huge turnover of players too. You’re trying to do your best, to give fellas game time and find footballers and have healthy competition for places in the group in order for lads to push each other in training to get on the 15 or the 21.”
An interesting stat from Sunday is that Wicklow had five championship debutants in the form of Brendan Kennedy, Darragh Fitzgerald, David Boothman, Conor Ffrench and Peadar Traynor.
It was also John Crowe’s first start and seven of the panel are from this year’s under-21 panel.