McNulty at a loss as to what went wrong against Clare, but things need to be rectified quickly

THE Laois footballers somehow managed to throw away a six-point half-time advantage at home to Clare on Saturday evening.

Manager Justin McNulty was impressed with his side’s superb first-half performance but one cause of concern was how easy it was Clare to get on top in the second-half and win by four points in the end.

“A game of two halves, we probably got the better of the first half and got a timely goal before half-time. We were in a very comfortable position at half-time and lots of good football played by our boys in the first half, expansive football, created great scoring opportunities, high percentage scoring rate, won the midfield kick-out battle hands down and then the second half was a complete reverse of that. There was a 10-point swing from half-time, we were six points up at half-time and lost by four, that's a 10-point swing, that's massive.

“We need to get the grips of why that happened, we're not quite sure but a big part of it was the kick-outs, they were able to score well off their kick-outs and score well off ours as well, unforced turnovers hurt us as well. Huge areas for improvement but things that can be relatively simply rectified and we haven't got too long to fix them. We've got to fix them very quick because we have to get back on the horse again and Fermanagh is going to be a tough, tough task next week,” he said.

Despite media assumptions that Laois’ final game against Fermanagh was a meaningless fixture, McNulty quickly set the record straight, emphasising that his team was not yet mathematically safe from relegation.

“It's not a dead rubber, we're potentially in the mix for relegation if results go a certain way, so tomorrow might make that position more certain but as it stands we have to be prepared to go to Fermanagh and do a big, big job and that's no easy task,” McNulty said.

Laois suffered a setback when midfielder Damon Larkin went off injured, a turning point that favoured Clare due to his strength in the air. McNulty admitted Larkin had been struggling with a hamstring issue and took full responsibility for not substituting him sooner. He acknowledged the need to review their decision-making and improve tactical adjustments in the future.

“Damon was probably not firing on all cylinders with a wee tweak to his hamstring and we should have probably identified that earlier and had him off earlier because it was causing us problems and that's my responsibility so I take full blame for that. It's one of the tactical switches that maybe could have been done better and we've got to look at that and see where we should have made changes earlier, could have made changes earlier, could have done things, made changes that we didn't make so we need to look at that and I don't have all the answers,” he said.

McNulty pinpointed Laois’ failure to control momentum in the second half as a key factor in their defeat. He lamented missed opportunities, citing careless possession and a lack of composure that allowed Clare to capitalise on turnovers.

“We needed to check the momentum in the second half and we didn't do that. There were opportunities for us, we had breakaway opportunities and we just were a bit flagrant in possession and a little more tidiness on our play and we could have closed the game out. Just those few momentum swings, we turned over possession and they went down the field and scored off it. If we'd put those scores to bed then we would have put them to bed but we just didn't do that and that's something we need to be more ruthless about and be more clinical about finishing the game out and we had opportunities to do that but we didn't take them and that's the most infuriating part.

“We were in a great position to win that game and we didn't do it and we need to understand why it happened and it's a combination of on-pitch and off-pitch and we're all going to need to take shared responsibility and fix it for next week,” he said.

McNulty said it was too early to know if Larkin would be fit for next week but remains hopeful. He noted that some players are nearing a return, while Crettyard’s Ciarán Burke is likely to step away due to ongoing injury struggles.

“We're not sure on Damon, it’s too early to say. Obviously he's a huge player and we hope he'll be ready for us next week. A few boys are coming back on stream, who've done huge work to get back and hopefully they'll be more ready next week. Ciarán Burke's long-term and he will probably step away from the panel because he's just been plagued with injury at this point and I think he's making the brave decision himself to make that call. By and large we have a strong, fit panel and that's positive and we need to make the most of that panel for next week because we have a big task ahead of us,” McNulty added.

Laois welcomed Shaun Fitzpatrick back from injury with McNulty calling it a huge boost for the team considering his performances for his county last year.

“Huge positive for us, Shaun was a warrior for us and a hugely valuable player for us last season so it's great to have him back and hopefully that few minutes at the end of the contest will stand by him and have him more ready for next week,” he said.

McNulty acknowledged Laois’ second-half struggles on kick-outs after a strong first half. He said he would review the game footage to understand what changed.

“It's hard to put our finger on it. They scored 1-10 off kick outs in the second half and 1-6 off their own. I need to understand and need to see the tape to see how they were able to do that so easily because we are so effectively disrupting their kick out in the first half and why are they able to get their percentages up so successfully in the second half,” McNulty ended.