CAREW SAYS MEATH WERE THERE FOR THE TAKING ON DAY
SLIGO manager Niall Carew was clearly disappointed after the result on Saturday, particularly after his side could have potentially won the game.
He said afterwards: “Look it was there for us. We put in a big performance like I knew we would and you know we had our period of dominance in the second half and we just didn’t take the chances.
“I think Pat had two or three chances, normally Pat is very good to swing them over. “Just luck wasn’t with him today and I suppose the big difference for me was they got three frees in the first half against that breeze, we got no free in the scoring area.”
He added: “At the same time, I’m very proud of them. They put in a massive performance and we have to remember Meath finished joint second in Division 2 so it was a step up for us and I felt we did step it up with them.”
He said: “With Charlie and Brendan going off it takes the heart out of your defence and then Kevin coming back in we had a more attacking role for him.
“We had to change our system when Brendan went off so that certainly gave them a platform they wouldn’t have had during the game,” he added.
The manager said you need a bit of luck including with decisions and that didn’t seem to be there for Sligo. “You have no control over any of that stuff. The only control we had was to bring on lads to try and drive it on.
“I felt Johnny Kelly put in a big shift and with the role he plays, he can only play 45/50 minutes the same with Mark Breheny, the two of them put in massive shifts.
“We just came up short in the end.”
He said the David Kelly chance would have been great if it went to extra time. “We would have been able to regroup and reset but unfortunately it didn’t work out for us,” the Kildare man added.
On his own future, Carew said he isn’t fully sure what the future holds.
“The first thing I will do is talk to my wife and kids and see can I give the commitment. Then obviously have to wait and see what the players and the County Board, they’re obviously the major stakeholders and you know there’s an awful lot of talking to be done first so we’ll see how it goes,” the manager added.
Carew praised the determination of his side. “I think they are getting better and better every year and in management your job is to make sure you get a team to compete at the highest level and we’re doing that.
“We did it against Mayo and did it against Meath today, a top Division 1 team and a top Division 2 team so we know we can do it and just disappointed that we didn’t today.”