McNulty: "I'm delighted with the effort from the lads"

Justin McNulty’s Laois footballers are into Round 2A of this year’s Tailteann Cup after a superb first half performance gave them a platform to build on and it ended with a seven point agaisnt Wicklow.

Speaking to the media in the O’Moore Park tunnel, McNulty gave massive credit to his panel of players who bounced back after defeat to Kildare in the Leinster Championship three weeks ago.

“I'm delighted with the effort from the lads and I'm delighted with the character they've shown,having taken a big set back after the Kildare match and to have stayed together, stayed tight and focused on improving, focusing on getting better. I'm thrilled about that and us as a coaching team and a management team can't be but pleased by the character the guys demonstrated and by the work rate they exhibited out there on the pitch,” he said.

Laois broke at pace and went straight at the Wicklow defence on plenty of occasions. McNulty put that down to the things that people don’t see at training during the week.

“It was about the work rate and the unseen moments, the fellas were working very, very hard to force win backs and huge, huge effort. That's what the foundation of the performance was,” McNulty said.

There were some personnel changes before the game in Portlaoise on Sunday as goalkeeper Killian Roche was replaced by Matthew Byron, who finished with four points. Captain Brian Byrne was also named on the bench.

“The squad is strong, it's making it very difficult for us to select, not alone the starting team but the matchday squad. The fellas deserve enormous credit and I'm talking from 1 to 36 in the group who put their head down despite their disappointment and annoyance and frustration, stay positive in the environment and that's very, very important. This is going to be so important for the next day because we're going to our squad and we're looking at the strength we have and we know we have options but we are the same as every other team in the Taillteann Cup. We’re only in the next round, that's it and we have a laser-focus on the next round only,” the Laois manager said.

Laois executed a great plan for the Wicklow kick-outs in the first half and it worked wonders as they had a big lead built up by half-time.

“It comes down to effort, it comes down to work rate and the fellas demonstrated guts in abundance and their work rate was extraordinary. We don't take that for granted for a second and the fellas put their bodies on the line to make that happen and they deserve enormous credit for it,” he said.

One thing that Laois didn’t do so well on was taking their goal chances. McNulty says it’s a positive to have going into the next round.

“We have areas of our performance which we need to work on and there's massive areas for improvements and that's a positive going into the next day,” McNulty added.

The Laois manager was facing off against his former Armagh teammate and someone he won an All-Ireland with in the form of Oisín McConville. He had plenty of praise for McConville.

“Oisín was a brilliant footballer, he's a brilliant manager. I have huge admiration for him, huge respect for him as a former adversary at club level, as somebody I remember from as far back as Cumann na mBunscol. He’s a heroic figure in the GAA but listen, it's not about me or it's not about Oisín, it's about the players in there who are putting their bodies on the line, who are committing day in and day out to a professional set-up. which is so important and that's what it's about. It’s about the players, it's not about who’s on the sideline, it's about the boys who want to cross the line and put their bodies on the line like our lads have done and hopefully will continue to do,” he said.

Laois came into the game knowing how important a first round win is as it gives Laois a safety net should they lose next time out.

We just decided to play without a safety valve. We went after a performance, we didn't focus on the result necessarily, we focused on a performance and the fellas stuck to that and deserve credit for it.