Defeat by Wexford consigned to history
THE importance of Saturday’s victory in Bray wasn’t lost on Louth full back Daniel Corcoran who felt the result drew a line under the defeat at the hands of Wexford before Christmas.
‘We just thought we needed to secure this win and get one win on the board, especially for a few of the younger lads on the team to get their first win in a Louth jersey to help confidence for the next game,’ he said.
‘I don’t know what the final score was against Wexford, but it definitely didn’t reflect the players that were within the group. We just had an off-day, I suppose, but I think we ratified that here.
‘We’re absolutely delighted with the second-half performance [especially]. I thought we kept the ball really well, we controlled the game, closed it down very well and only conceded 1-9 which we’d be very happy about as well.
‘We were a man down for a lot of the game, but I thought we reacted very well to that and upped our intensity.’
Just two points ahead at the interval, with Andy McDonnell having been sent off, the Wee County were far from home and hosed, but the squad heeded the message from the management team that more was required.
‘We said in the dressing-room we had to up it again and get out there and get the job done and thankfully that’s what we did,’ Corcoran continued.
‘Bevan Duffy had a very good game organising us all and we’re starting to gell a bit better now after getting a few more boys back in after the Wexford game.
‘The boys coming off the bench really freshened it up because we were probably getting a bit tired.’
Louth will lock horns with Longford this coming Saturday, with a place in the O’Byrne Cup semis at stake, and the Geraldines man feels it will be to the Wee County’s benefit to stay in the competition as long as possible.
‘We’ve another game now on January 5th and hopefully we’ll go out there and get a similar enough result,’ Corcoran said.
‘It would be brilliant to be in any sort of semi-final in a competitive competition, to be in with a chance of trophies or medals.
‘These pre-season games are brilliant for getting minutes for the younger lads and getting them experienced going into the league because the league football is obviously a different animal to O’Byrne Cup football.’
As for the new rules being trialled in this competition, Corcoran feels the squad are beginning to get accustomed to them.
‘We were trying to work the mark into training and you saw it obviously worked out there once or twice. It takes a bit of adjusting - especially the hand-pass one which can be tough coming out from the back because there’s not always a kick-pass on.
‘But I think we’re adjusting well. I know myself it is getting easier. You nearly don’t have to hear boys counting out one, two, three hand-passes. It’s nearly automatic now and that’s what you want.’