Corey feels hard work has been done as Sligo travel to Armagh
WITH Sligo playing their last game in the Connacht FBD on Sunday with Mayo, focus is now fully on the Allianz League which gets underway on Sunday away to Armagh.
Sligo manager Cathal Corey said the FBD league was good in terms of introducing young players, many of whom made their debuts for the Yeats men.
After Sunday’s two-point defeat to last year’s All-Ireland finalists, the Tyrone man said he was happy with the performance.
“Going into this week I was looking to kind of get a good performance ahead of the National League, so we’re delighted today.
“We had a couple of men back, Liam Gaughan, Niall Murphy and Cian Breheny, so it was good just to give them boys a bit of game time ahead of the Armagh match,” the manager said.
He said the FBD was important preparation for Sunday’s trip to Armagh too. “Every day we go out now we learn something and we have to happy today with our workrate and our intensity and tackling and even in the last ten or five minutes the willingness to work was just unreal and we’re delighted with that.
“Mayo showed their class of running down the clock and keeping the ball for awhile and working the score and not panicking and we have a lot of them wee things still to learn but we are happy. The things we look for first is that hard work, real hard work and we got that today.”
The Tyrone man said in terms of the League this year, it’s about staying up. “When you look at our full backline there today, Luke and Micey and Eddie, they are all so young, they have never played at this level, they were good minors but it’s a step up from minors to this level. I’m just delighted the likes of those boys, Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch and Paddy O’Connor, Paddy has a big game in the Sigerson on Tuesday night so we had to take Paddy off at half-time. Liam Gaughan came on there and he only got ten minutes but he ran so much in that time. To stay up would be brilliant,” Cathal said,
He said it will be tough in Division 3. “This is as tough a Division 3 as it has been now for awhile. Armagh is down there and they are talking they probably need out of it. Derry’s probably a bit unlucky to come down. Fermanag’s come down but they’ve had a brilliant McKenna Cup and under Rory they would see promotion as a must nearly.
“The likes of Longford, Westmeath, Wexford and Offaly, they are teams that are hard to beat. Any team that goes to Longford and comes out of it has a day’s work done. So we know that it’s going to be tough but it’s a good environment for these young plyers to develop in.”
He said Armagh will be a tough game but Sligo have put in a lot of work. “It’s about finding the best 30 players in Sligo, working with them and developing them and we do feel we have improved a bit today. It’s the FBD but we weren’t looking at that, we were looking at the performance and I think we got that.”
Cathal said Kevin McDonnell and Charlie Harrison are three weeks or so away from returning from injury. “Kevin and Charlie are a couple of weeks away. Adrian McIntyre has a wee problem with his back and we need to get a bit of work done with him over the next few weeks and see where he’s at.
“The majority of our players is there. I think Charlie was 36 yesterday it was his birthday and he was in the gym training yesterday morning so he’s still showing a willingness to play for Sligo.
“It’s unfortunate that Mark (Breheny) retired. I felt Mark had a role to play for Sligo this year, I felt Mark had a lot to learn to the younger players but Mark owes Sligo nothing, he’s a legend and always will be at Sligo football.
“I didn’t get to work with him, I’m a wee bit disappointed there. He’s a lovely fella and I know he did a bit of training, he was in great shape but he just felt it was time to let the young boys take over.
“And you see Finnian there today at 11, he was absolutely brilliant and he’s the next generation.”
He said Brendan Egan is a bit tied up with work at the minute but the Tourlestrane man is still on the squad and expected to be seen soon.
“The players that will play in Armagh will have played here today. There will be no one playing on Sunday who hasn’t been seen today.
“The squad will be picked from today’s squad,” Cathal added. “There were a lot of players there we had to learn and find out about and we do feel we have worked hard and done a lot of work.
“Aidan Rooney and Aaron Gyles have worked tirelessly and we do feel we have done a lot of work. Armagh is going to be a massive, massive test. They rested their team last night for Sunday so that shows they are not taking Sligo or anybody lightly. They have a job to do and they are focussed on it,” Cathal added.