Early chances weren’t taken

THERE was a distinct sense of what might have been for the Sligo U-20 footballers after their three-point loss to Roscommon on Saturday afternoon last.

A late, late scoring burst brought Sligo to within striking range, but they were left to ponder a disappointing start to the match which saw them fail to register a score in the opening 20 minutes.

For Dessie Sloyan, the Sligo manager, the source of most disappointment was the fact that his side did not perform to their ability. “Disappointed with our performance,” the Easkey native said post-match. “We didn’t get going there for 20 or 25 minutes, so that’s what held us up in the end. I’m just disappointed for the lads because they put in great effort and great preparation and unfortunately just didn’t seem to our way today. It took us too long to settle down and get into the game, took us too long to get our first score which would have settled us earlier but that’s life, that’s football.”

In particular, Sloyan referenced some early opportunities – including a penalty claim – that could have helped his side find their feet.

“I thought we’d a couple of chances early on, I think after three or four minutes it looked like a stone wall penalty to me that Red Óg [Murphy] was pulled and hand tripped in the box.

“But we’d another couple of chances as well and I don’t know if it was the conditions that it took us a while to settle or not but we had three or four chances early on that if we got a point or two points, I think it would have settled the team. We didn’t get that, and we just seemed to carry on that nervousness throughout the whole game.”

While the nature of the U-20 championship is unforgiving in so far as there are no second chances, Sloyan says there is reason to be optimistic for the future of these players.

“It feels a bit surreal after all the preparation that’s gone into it is then just one game on one of the worst days of the year weather-wise and it’s over, but it’s the same for everyone, we’ve prepared for this and we knew this was early on but it didn’t go our way today

“There are great players there, I think there are fantastic players there and they need to be coached and nurtured and brought on and proper strength and conditioning now and looked after.

“Even the guys that are overage next year have huge potential, they have a lot of work to do to get to the senior intercounty level now and I hope they are brought into panels and looked after because there is huge ability in these players and it is looking good for the future if these guys can be looked after properly.”

THERE IS HUGE ABILITY IN THESE PLAYERS.