“The lads are very disappointed but we will get back on the horse and be ready Sunday”
IT was never going to be an easy task for a much-changed Sligo travelling to the Orchard County to take on an Armagh side eager to get out of Division 3 and Sligo manager said after Sunday’s game that it was very much a learning experience for his side.
The Tyrone man said after the opening round of the Allianz League: “It was a tough day for us now. We knew Armagh had targetted promotion. We had a good result last week and we felt we were getting a bit of shape to it but today now was a tough day.
“Armagh were beating us in every position all over the field and kept at it and never let us off, they kept driving and driving.
“We probably thought if we kept it to six at half-time, the last two points they got just before half-time pushed it out a wee bit but we still felt that we hadn’t play or took our intensity that we were working on in training and we were hoping fellas would get going and get a few early scores.
“There was a small period after about 12 or 15 minutes that we did get a couple of scores and made a couple of goal chances but we didn’t take any of those and Armagh just punched out two goals after that,” Cathal said.
He said Armagh seemed very determined. “Armagh just seemed real focussed. They come here today and they weren’t going to let what happened last year happen today.
“Even at the end there today, the full-forward dropped right back to the top of the defence and they were making sure they were not giving us anything.
“It is disappointing, the boys are really disappointed in there too you know. We stayed over last night and we had a good meeting and we felt we were going to come down, did we think we were going to win it maybe not but we thought we were going to give it a real battle but we are probably most disappointed in the performance as opposed the result,” the Tyrone man said. He said there were positives to take, such as the debutants for Sligo. “I thought to see the young boys in the full backline, Luke and Mikey and Eddie did well, they handled their full-forward line for a long time and in the first half when Armagh had the breeze I thought they did well but we just couldn’t get from midfield up, we just couldn’t seem to get it going or cause them any problems.
“We didn’t get enough chances and it’s just disappointing you know.” The manager said it’s about regrouping for Wexford now. “Today is over, you’re waiting for this here game for three months and you know who you’re playing and it’s all you can talk about at least now We’ll go back Tuesday night and we’ll work hard, we have Wexford coming to Markievicz on Sunday.
“The fact that the game is in Sligo will be a lift for the boys too as we’re hoping we can get a thing going between now and Sunday.
“We see next Sunday as a very, very important game for us and we’ll be working very hard this week.
“I don’t think it will be hard to regroup the players, they have been in this position before and know they’ve lost the first game but there’s still six big games to play.
“We’ll get them up again on Tuesday night and get them going again. We’re happy that Niall Murphy got a full game there today and Cian Breheny got 45 minutes, so we’re happy that them boys have got a bit of football in the tank.
“We will learn a lot from today, we’ll learn what we have to work on now but it’s just about getting that intensity.
“The way football is played now you have to get up and running fast, “We were against the breeze in the first half and we slowed the game down and stuff and maybe that was the worst thing we could have done because we play well when we’re at full intensity and slowing the game down maybe threw us out a little bit.
“But we will get back on the horse and we will be ready to go next Sunday,” Cathal added.