Gorman believes there are positives to carry into next weekend's relegation final
The man behind the wire - Laois manager Peter O'Leary watches how the All-Ireland relegation semi-final against Cavan unfolds from the sideline Photo: Paul Dargan
With manager Peter O'Leary serving a suspension following his red card against Wexford a few weeks ago, selector Conor Gorman took charge on the side line as Laois slipped to defeat against Cavan in Athlone on Sunday.
The result leaves Laois one game away from dropping into the All-Ireland Junior Championship, with a relegation final against Wicklow now standing between them and the preservation of their Intermediate status.
Despite the disappointment, Gorman insisted the focus has already turned to next weekend's season-defining encounter.
“It's what you have to do at this time of the year. It gets down to the last little bits and it's not the place we want it to be, but it's where we are. We'll just have to keep our heads up, focus on next week's game and try and push on again this week,” he said.
Cavan produced an impressive display and arguably found themselves in the relegation play-off after a difficult group campaign, missing out on qualification on scoring difference. Gorman acknowledged the quality of the opposition while praising the effort shown by the Laois players.
“Cavan have a few very good players. They're a good, strong team. They play good football when they get the ball moving, so we knew it was going to be a tough task today. Our girls are well able to compete at this level. They're well able to compete at a higher level, so they went into the game looking to see if we could turn them over.
“We weren't too far off in the first half, if we'd just cancelled out one or two little mistakes, we would have went in in a great position. It was kind of an uphill battle then in the second half, but every one of them battled and it'll be a game that'll stand to them now going into the relegation final,” Gorman said.
The toss proved significant, with Cavan opting to play with a strong breeze in the opening half before opening up a six-point lead by the interval. Although Laois had the elements in their favour after the restart, they were unable to reduce the deficit to a level that put real pressure on their opponents.
Gorman, however, was encouraged by the way Laois approached the opening half and believes there are positives to carry into next weekend's relegation final.
"During this year, we've been notoriously slow starters and we were a little bit worried, but the girls went out today and they really attacked Cavan. We pinned Cavan into their half for large periods in the first half, which was very impressive from them. That's another big thing to take into the last game, that when we really want to push ourselves on to it, we're well capable," he concluded.
