Duff left frustrated by ‘inefficient’ performance

LAOIS ladies football manager Stephen Duff was left frustrated by his side’s inefficiency in front of goal as they came up short against Westmeath in the TG4 Leinster Intermediate final on Sunday afternoon.

“We were just so inefficient in everything that we did. The stat at half-time was that we had more attacks and more shots than they did. They still had an eight-point lead, so we're just not taking enough of our chances, just not clicking up front,” said Duff.

“It’s been the story all year, moral victories, but they're not that much ahead of us. We just gave them another massive head start, 1-4, before we even kicked anything. Some big moments against us as well.

“We went around the goalkeeper at one stage with Eva (Galvin), and Jane Moore got in one-on-one, and Mo (Nerney) missed a couple of frees. Just those moments went against us and killed our momentum at times. There are plenty of positives to take, but it's just disappointing in a final that we didn't get a chance to take our chances.” Despite conceding 1-4 without reply early in the game, Duff felt his team still had the confidence to respond as they had been in similar situations earlier in the season and managed to come out with a victory.

“Was it hard? No, it wasn't, because we're so used to being in that position. We actually said at half-time, look, we can come back from this. We've done it before, and there's a lot of confidence we've taken from it. So I didn't think it was too hard. It's just a pity that we put ourselves in that position. I think at half-time, a fair reflection of the game would have been about six or seven points to four, but unfortunately, it wasn't that, and if, buts or maybes never win a race.

“We need to get ourselves into a position where we're not out of a game after 15 minutes. It's just constant bad decisions compounded in 15-minute periods, and then when we're not taking our chances, we're not getting back into the game. It's just difficult to take, but plenty of positives going into the All-Ireland Championship,” he commented.

Laois managed just two points in the opening half, but Duff was keen to stress that the chances were there, they just weren’t taken.

“Two points in the first half, but we had 13 shots. It's not like we're not creating them, it'd be a much bigger problem if we weren't creating them. We're not taking them, I think Lauren Walsh got blocked down, I think Ciara Burke got blocked down. I think we got blocked down five times. We were throwing the ball up and crowding our own space, and they were blocking the D out fairly well, and we decided we wanted to run into the D and try to shoot from there.

“We weren’t patient enough and weren’t getting the ball into the space that was there. Emily Lacey gave us a bit of that when she came in the second half. She was willing to go out into space so that there were no bodies, but it just wasn't enough, and Westmeath were good in defence and didn't cough up any goals. We weren't composed enough to take the chances we got,” he reflected.

Duff was encouraged by the impact off the bench from key players returning from injury. Emily Lacey contributed three points in the second-half while Emma Lawlor also came on with a lot of strapping around her right hamstring.

“It’s brilliant. Emily's the only player to win two O'Connor Cup All-Stars, and only play in one O'Connor Cup, as I do say. She's an especially talented girl. She just hasn't been fit since the O'Connor Cup. God love her, she had a problem with her ankle.

“Emma Lawlor tore her hamstring in Aughrim. It was a managing game and trying to balance on how we could get her on the pitch. She definitely didn't have 60 minutes in her, she probably didn't have 20 minutes in her, but we just needed her so she gave us a bit coming on.

“The squad is growing as well. We've brought back in Mary Cotter and Clodagh Dunne, which will add a lot to our defence as well over the next couple of weeks. We're getting stronger and stronger, but I think the girls who are out on the field are doing enough. It's just that we're not taking our chances. That's just the criminal part of it. We'll go back to the drawing board and see how we can get better again. Either Fermanagh or Roscommon in two weeks' time. We'll look forward to that,” he noted.

Looking ahead to the All-Ireland series, where Laois will face Fermanagh and Roscommon in the group stages, Duff knows that his team will need to be more clinical if they are to progress.

“Roscommon are in a difficult position, they haven't had an inter-provincial championship. There was no one intermediate in Connacht, so they were straight in as first seeds. I don't know whether that's a positive or a negative.

“Fermanagh lost out to Tyrone in the first round of Ulster, so they've been sitting and waiting for a while. They are a decent team. Last year, they won the Junior All-Ireland. They've got the two Bogue sisters - Blaithin and Cadhla - who'll be very dangerous.

“They won't be easy games, and especially if you go up to either of them counties, which we will have to go to one of them. It won't be easy. But we're definitely good enough to beat them teams. It's just that if we can take our chances, that's the key message. If we can take our chances, we'll beat anyone on our day,” he ended.