McEntee turns his focus to the test in Louth
SLIGO are on the road again this Sunday and this time they have to get a result. Only by beating Louth can Sligo further their promotion hopes, otherwise it is the dubious consolation of the Division Four Shield.
Tony McEntee, Sligo’s new manager who has now experienced a win and a loss with the Connacht county, said he always anticipated having to go to Louth for a win-orbust showdown with ex-Tyrone boss Mickey Harte.
“This result [against Antrim] doesn’t change what we have to do – we have to go to Louth and beat Louth. This will give us an opportunity to progress to the semi-finals.” “We would like to be going there with a bit more confidence but we still played well in patches [against Antrim] and we racked up 3-12. There are a lot of positives out of this game but still disappointment.”
“We know a lot more after this game and the Leitrim game – that is one thing that the National League was for, learning more about the squad.”
“Sometimes it is hard following a defeat to see the good things but we’ve come to Antrim, put up a good display in a fairly good game and, at the end of the day, we were unlucky, with 14 players, not to win.”
“This is the beauty of this year’s competition, we are out again next week to try to turn things around. “These games have been a long time coming, we’ve only had four or five weeks of pre-season so you can’t expect too much.” McEntee maintained that he would have taken a draw from the rollercoaster against Antrim but conceded that Sligo’s opponents were worthy winners. He also had no qualms about Antrim’s third goal, despite some believing that Euan Walsh had somehow juggled the ball beyond Eamonn Kilgannon.
“I’d like to be fair – Antrim were good value for their win. They fought really hard, right to the end.”
“When we went down to 14 men late on, they [Antrim] attacked, attacked and attacked.” He continued: “To be fair, we got the benefit of the new rules regarding cynical play and any luck that was going.”
“But after our third penalty there must have been five or six minutes injury time played at that stage.” Meanwhile, Sligo forward Niall Murphy, who scored 2-4 last Sunday and was dismissed in the second-half after picking up a second yellow card, rued the outcome. “We’re hugely disappointed, especially as we were four points up at one stage [in the second-half ]. We were right in the game but we left it behind us because of silly mistakes.”
“I got sent off albeit I thought it [the second booking] was a bit harsh.”
“We should have seen it out after we scored that third penalty. Things just swung in a different direction for us and we weren’t just clever enough to see it out,” he added.