‘I won’t be quitting’
Football manager vows to battle on
THE WEXFORD Senior football manager, Paul McLoughlin, has said he will battle on, adding that ‘I’ve no intention of quitting’.
Having surrendered a further two points to lowly Waterford, McLoughlin is the first to admit all is not right with Wexford football.
He is accepting his role in an incredible meltdown, with the Model county now ranked bottom of the 32 competing counties with a -24 score difference, leaving the county with its poorest ever league showing.
‘I take my part of the blame, the buck stops with me, but there is also a responsibility on the whole group, also a responsibility on the players. There’s also football people in Wexford who need to roll up their sleeves and take action.
‘The County Board has given us decent support but sometimes that is not enough. I’ve no problem with the County Board but would question if the structures in the county are what they should be.
‘While at the end of the day we should be getting more out of the players, the players also should be getting more out of themselves,’ he said.
‘The clubs in Wexford have abandoned football,’ he then claimed. ‘Take it this way, there are only 15 to 20 players who can play in Croke Park on Leinster hurling final day, but while the squad is made up of 30-odd players, where does that leave the remainder of the players in the county?
‘We have a 365 structure for hurling in the county, but where is the equivalent for football,’ asked McLoughlin when referring to the structures or moreso the lack of them.
On the question of strengthening his backroom team and squad, McLoughlin is adamant he has tried everything.
‘I’ve asked six people to become part of the backroom, but for one reason or another they have declined. Maybe they haven’t the time, but I don’t know.’
Regarding availability of players, McLoughlin is also quite clear on his track record.
‘I’ve met people who suggest I should ask this one, should ask someone else, but I would already have asked those players. They simply would not commit themselves. That’s the reality of the situation.’
Wexford have fallen to three league defeats with just one victory from the four games played, and McLoughlin believes his side are naive when it comes to inter-county football..
‘We simply cannot carry on the way we are playing. There’s no doubt we really messed up on this occasion.
‘We played better than we did against London,’ he claimed. ‘They had just nine scores, we had twelve, but when would you see a team lose a game with 70 per cent possession? We owned the ball, had all the ball, but what we witnessed was tactical suicide.
‘We pushed up and owned the ball but we stayed up. We left ourselves open to counter-attacks, left far too much open space. We are also missing way too many chances, while we are turning the ball over in the opposition half.
‘We have now added to that in that we are leaving ourselves open defensively. Practically all of their goals came on the break, the quick counter-attack.
‘The reality is one cannot play inter-county football off the cuff. Waterford did not attack that often, but they attacked the open spaces we gave them.
‘We don’t understand the requirements of inter-county football, the need to keep ball and possession against teams that play defensively. We are not adapting quickly enough to that style of play, but it’s something we must learn.’
On the remaining games, McLoughlin said: ‘Let’s forget about the league. We will now have to give lads a chance. As a group we must decide if we want to continue playing in a way that makes us vulnerable to the counter-attack. In boxing terms we are sticking our chin out and leaving it exposed.’
McLoughlin is still adamant regarding his future. ‘It’s getting frustrating but I’m not going to quit, I’m not a quitter. It’s a question for County Board and players.
‘But I would ask everyone to have a look at themselves, while at the same time we must see the reality of the situation we now find ourselves in.
‘Football people in Wexford need to roll up their sleeves and take action.
‘We cannot continue to play the way we have so far. The likes of Fermanagh and Carlow have adapted their game. It may not be attractive, but they are playing to their limited resources. Wexford must adapt in a similar fashion.’
Wexford face another test on Saturday when they travel to Aughrim to play Wicklow at 2 p.m.