‘Disappointed’ Bates feels it’s been a good ye
O’CONNELL’S boss Paddy Bates was understandably disappointed with the manner of Saturday’s defeat to Meath opponents Curraha, but he conceded his team came a long way in 2017.
‘No it wasn’t a bad season at all. We’ll reflect on that over the coming weeks and see what the plans are for 2018. But no, a good season. Has to be a good season from where we started, maybe where we were in March or April, maybe it ends up quite well, an intermediate championship, so it’s not too bad.’
That said, he felt the ‘Bellingham boys left something behind them at The Grove as a couple of ‘slack’ goals proved crucial to Curraha.
‘I thought we played very well in the first half. I thought we got most things right. We set ourselves up right. We got into the game early on, and everything was going quite well and we were 7-4 up or 7-3 up at half time. Should have been a little bit more, definitely, and that would have made it a little bit more comfortable. Still at half time we were in a pretty good place. But they come out and blitzed us in the second half, and that’s where we lost the game actually, in the first five or six minutes of the second half.’
Bates felt his team were perhaps not at their prolific best in front of the target, but he felt enforced changes may have contributed to that.
‘We did change the team around a little bit, you saw that, so maybe the wrong guys were getting on the ball in the right positions. But that happens too some days. A couple dropped short, a couple went sideways, so we could have been a few more points up.’
Curraha seemed to recharge and re-group well at half-time, but Bates felt his side were holding them in check.
‘I thought we weathered it, but then legs started getting a little bit tired. And they’re a good team, they’re a young team, they’ve a good system and just keep doing it. I have to say, we’re bitterly disappointed.
‘The second goal was very well taken, but it was a turn-over further up the field. Again, we’re on the attack, you turn around