HEGARTY’S REGRETS
First-half no-show was very costly
JOHN HEGARTY was left to rue what might have been after his side went down to a narrow defeat to Antrim in their Tailteann Cup clash in Chadwicks Wexford Park on Saturday.
The hosts failed to fire on anywhere close to all cylinders in the opening half, going in 1-8 to 0-7 in arrears at break, before emerging with more purpose after the interval, but eventually falling just short.
Reflecting on the 1-15 to 0-17 loss, the manager felt it was a game that was there to be won if his charges had shown the same sort of energy throughout the contest, rather than only coming to life after emerging from the tunnel for the second period.
“That was the frustrating part of it. We had identified what needed to be done against Antrim. The things we had said beforehand proved to be the key things in the game, but we just didn’t bring the required amount of intensity and aggression in the first-half.
“We started well enough and were in the game, then we just fell off for a period of about 20 minutes and let them have too much time and space on the ball, and they are a decent side when they get that.
“Then you look at how things changed in the second-half and how much of different team we were when we were playing with a bit more pace and a bit more aggression,” he continued.
“All of a sudden, we were getting at their kick-outs and that was giving us a platform. If we had brought that to the first-half, I think we would have run out winners.
“I’m not going to say comfortable winners, because it was a tight game, but we certainly would have been winners,” he said.
Ruairí McCann’s fourth-minute goal was an early sucker-punch for the hosts, and Hegarty believes, particularly given past experiences, that they shouldn’t have been ripped apart so easily by route one football.
“It was a throwback to bygone eras. Just a long ball in and he finished it well. He got two goals the week before, not dissimilar to that, and he also got two goals against us in the Park last year of a similar fashion. He is a handful, but it was of the softish variety,” he said.
Looking to the positives, Hegarty believes his side are continuing to improve and are a work in progress, and feels if they can cut out avoidable mistakes, they will be match for most.
There still could be plenty of football for the Slaneysiders to play in this competition and it’s clearly a learning curve for all involved, while fresh faces like goalkeeper Will Foley, who made his debut on Saturday, are getting their chance to shine.
“All of this is invaluable experience for lads and we’re still in the competition. A win against Tipperary sees us through.
“Tipperary will be a much-improved outfit from what we played previously but, at the same time, there’s no excuses. That’s a game that we would be targeting to go and win.
“We had Will Foley playing his first game for us. It was his first-ever adult game of football. Because of his age he wasn’t able to play club championship last year. It was a big day for him, and he came through it well.
“It was nice to get the likes of Jack Higgins on to get more experience into him. There were positives to come out of it, but it was really a game of fine margins and small things make a big difference.
“It is a competitive panel. Liam O’Connor played again yesterday, it’s only his second start for us and he did really well. If you’re going well in training, we are still trying to give lads opportunities,” Hegarty said.