Corey making no excuses following five point defeat at the hands of Fermanagh
Sligo manager Cathal Corey was making no excuses for his side’s low tally of eight points in a five point defeat to Fermanagh on Sunday.
Despite starting well and taking a three point lead after just four minutes, the hosts then failed to score anything until almost 30 minutes was gone on the clock.
“We seemed to get off to a good start. We were three points up after five minutes, they just seemed to get a lot of numbers back and they were well organised.
“We just couldn’t get the inside forward the ball at all. We had plenty of possession but we could not seem to get going in the final third, we just could not get our scores. We pushed back out the field then,” Corey said afterwards.
In hindsight, Corey feels that the period in which Sligo failed to score, was probably the turning point of the afternoon.
“When we look back at the game that’s probably where the game turned. If we kept the scoreboard ticking over at that stage, they dropped more bodies and turned us over and were fit to hit us on the counter. The perfect start but then for the next 20 minutes or so we lost our way a bit we probably invited them on a bit without pressing them. It was disappointing.”
Corey had planned and prepared for Fermanagh’s tactics, and likewise he said the conditions too could not be blamed.
“We knew that’s the way they’d play, we worked on it in training. We just couldn’t get a score. There was no space. Tough to get anything going.
“Conditions weren’t too bad. The pitch was better than it was two weeks ago, there was a bit of water on the top but it was fine. There was no bounce in the ball.”
Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch missed out through injury having played in the Sigerson final the day before, but again Corey said he was well aware he would have to plan without Sigerson players in the lead up to this game.
“All week we knew we would be without the boys who were in the Sigerson Cup final so we did plan for that. I don’t see that as a factor. We started well and we just lost our way. Second half we battled a bit harder, we needed a goal or the bounce of the ball but we didn’t get that.
“If we had even got a couple of extra points, every time we scored they were fit to go down the other end and score.”