Missed chances prove costly

JOHN EVANS didn’t seem too concerned at the defeat to Louth last Saturday. It’s still December when all is said and done, and the O’Byrne Cup is primarily for experimentation and trying new things and faces and seeing what talent exists around the county.

Weddings, holidays and injuries robbed Wicklow of some household names for this clash but Evans was looking at the positives after the game.

‘(We’re) trying to give guys game time that haven’t had game time before. It’s difficult trying to build when you’re doing that, plus you’ve a lot of guys away at the moment between guys getting married and holidays and injuries as well.

‘Look, it was good to see a few fellas that are back from injuries, the likes of ‘Whacker’ (Patrick O’Connor), Chris O’Brien and Dean Healy, they came back in and they got 40 minutes which is what we wanted,’ he said.

An extensive tour of the county has been undertaken to swell this Wicklow panel. Players from Newtown, AGB, Stratford-Grangecon, Valleymount and Kilmacanogue are supplying some of the new faces this season.

‘Newtown, Kilmac, AGB have a few, we went down to Junior and Intermediate as well, we have Mickey Mangan in there, Conor McGraynor, lads like that,’ said John Evans. Newtown’s Ross Davis was introduced as well while Éire Óg’s Fintan O’Shea looked useful in the first half.

Missed chances were key to the defeat according to the Wicklow boss.

‘I just think we missed a few very easy chances in the first half that we should have taken and if that had happened it would have kept the momentum going,’ he said.

The new rules are not too popular in the Evans household. There were instances of errors from the officials as well as Wicklow falling foul to the handpass rule over the course of the 70 minutes.

‘The referee got confused as well. And then we had about four instances on the trot when we were in a good position where we played the extra pass and got penalised. These are instances that will go against you,’ said John Evans, who admitted that Louth are that bit ‘slicker’ at the moment.

‘They were a Division 2 team that have just came down to Division 3 so they would be slicker than we are, at the moment anyway,’ he added.

‘There is progress. I’m happy enough that we did kick some good scores. I’m just annoyed that we left some easy chances that we should have taken.

‘Gearoid Murphy gave a ball to Podge when he should have put it over the bar, ‘Whacker’ putting the ball out to Chris when he should have put it over, that kind of thing,’ he concluded.