New Laois boss sees positives after narrow championship loss

LAOIS ladies’ football manager Peter O'Leary admitted it was a difficult defeat to take after his side fell to a one-point loss against Clare in the opening round of their All-Ireland Championship, but he was heartened by the determination and resilience shown by his players in his first game at the helm.

Playing with the aid of the wind in the opening half, O'Leary felt his side performed well for long periods and executed much of what had been asked of them.

O’Leary said: "It was tough to lose in the end; we battled and battled throughout the game. To lose by a point like that is definitely difficult to take. I think we battled hard. We were a point down going into half-time and we were in good shape.

"We had the wind in the first half, and I thought we did okay. We put in a lot of good tackles and turned over ball on numerous occasions. It was just one or two bad passes coming out of defence that went wrong for us and cost us in the end."

The Laois boss acknowledged that the squad is still very much a work in progress, with a rebuilding process underway after a difficult start to the season.

"We are trying to rebuild this whole thing since the Leinster Championship, and we were unlucky in certain aspects of the game. It wasn't helped by the news that Fiona Dooley would be gone.

“She was due to start and is a key player for us. We had a number of injuries too, so hopefully they will clear up in the next week for the game against Wexford, which was always going to be important in terms of qualification."

O'Leary was particularly pleased with how his players stuck to the tactical plan against a Clare side that has caused Laois problems in recent meetings.

"We did execute the game plan in the main, but in the first ten minutes it let us down somewhat. The whole thing was to stop Clare from running through us and scoring goal after goal, which has happened against us before, especially in the Leinster Championship earlier in the year.

"We thought if we stopped all those goals, we would have a proper chance of coming out of here today with a victory and it turned out the case but we fell short in the end.” While disappointed with the result, the new manager believes the performance answered important questions about the character of the squad.

"I wondered before the game if the girls would have the fight in them or not to try and turn the season around.

“Today's game definitely proves to me and the management that there is huge fight in this group and that will stand to us.

"We got through 20 players today and we still have a few players to come back from injury."

With a crucial clash against Wexford now looming, O'Leary feels only minor improvements are needed for Laois to get their championship campaign back on track.

"There isn't much to improve on really. We just need to cut out a few of the mistakes that we are making and stuff like that. Hopefully we will have a few more girls come back and we will have to go and have a go at Wexford.

"We watched them against Westmeath so we will have a plan for Wexford, and we will take it from there."