Panel must quickly refocus with crucial games on the horizon - Duff

LAOIS ladies manager Stephen Duff was understandably frustrated as he reflected on his side’s defeat to Clare in Clarecastle on Sunday afternoon. In a candid assessment, Duff pointed to costly lapses, questioned key decisions, and insisted his panel must quickly refocus with crucial games on the horizon.

When asked for his overall thoughts on what he described as a disappointing result, Duff did not mask his frustration.

“Obviously, bitterly disappointing, we were sloppy in the first half. A lot of questionable referee decisions, again, it's our third time having that ref and you'd have to consider why you have the same ref three out of four weeks.

“Look, it's hard to process right now because I don't think we should have been as close as it was. We just had mistakes in the first half that really, really cost us. We go through moments of that and seven or eight-minutes sort of killed us,” said Duff.

With Clare managing to score three goals playing against the wind in the opening period, Duff explained how damaging that proved after the final whistle.

“Two of them I really have serious questions about, but we still conceded them. We just can’t concede 3-1 when we have the wind and we scored 1-9. So, yeah, hard to process right now. Bitterly disappointing, but we will regroup and stick together.

“The girls showed an awful lot of heart in the second half because it wasn't easy running against that wind. We can't let that slip like that again,” he added Attention now turns to a demanding run of fixtures, including two clashes with table-topping sides. Duff was clear that his focus remains internal rather than on the opposition.

“We're in a battle with ourselves. I don't care who we play. We've got the players; we've got the talent. We're in a battle with ourselves. There have been moments when we’ve not been fully focused, and today, it would have been nice if we'd been focused and not conceded those scores.

“If you look back on all of our games, there are seven or eight minutes that really kill us, and that's happened again today. I don't give a crap who we play in Intermediate or Division 3; if we don’t show up on the day, if we don’t perform, then we're not winning.

“If we’re not performing for 60 minutes, then you don’t deserve it. That's my answer right now,” he said.

Finally, Duff provided an update on the squad’s fitness, with some positives from the afternoon but also concerns emerging for the future.

“Yes, Laura Marie (Maher) was 50-50 on whether she could even start. She made it to the final whistle, so that’s obviously a positive for us. Emma Lawlor is nursing a hamstring injury, so we might not see her for now, which is a blow for us, but look, we have a big panel, and we look to what’s ahead now,” Duff concluded.