‘There’s grounds for optimism and we have to turn this around’ - McNulty

Barry McEvoy 

LAOIS footballers fell to Offaly in their National Football League opener on Sunday in Laois Hire O’Moore Park. Manager, Justin McNulty was disappointed with the result, but praised his players for their ability to bounce back.

Offaly tore into a six point lead before Laois got on the board and that lead increased to 11 points by the 30th minute.

Speaking after the loss McNulty said: “I’m happy that when everything was going wrong - crazy amount of turnovers, missed opportunities, Offaly appearing to be able to score at ese for big periods of the game – they (his players) could have down tools easily in the second half but they didn’t. They dug in, they fought back and brought a degree of respectability back to the scoreline.

“They (Offaly) were completely dominating for too long in the game and the scoreline reflected that, but the fellas somehow managed to turn it and claw it back a little bit and that’s grounds for encouragement.

“The fellas are disappointed, they’ve put a huge amount of work in. They don’t go out and plan to cough up possession but we did cough up possession too often in every part of the pitch and we weren’t clinical up front and we weren’t patient enough in creating the right opportunities for ourselves up front so we have a major job of work to rectify things now.” Laois’s league opener against Leitrim was postponed, thus meaning this was their first outing while Offaly already got a win under their belt against Sligo, but McNulty said that’s no excuse.

“We can use that as an excuse, but there’s no excuse, we weren’t as ready as we should’ve been and me as the manager has to take responsibility.

“We didn’t get to grips with how slickly they were able to move the ball around and create opportunities without huge pressure on them and I don’t know how or why that happened, we’ll have to look the tape and see how they were able to score so easily against us for too long in the game.

“I take a huge degree of responsibility in that, and the boys are hurting, they didn’t do themselves justice and I think it’s now time to question whether they can turn this around because we haven’t time to feel sorry for ourselves.” Just as Laois battled back into contention at the end of the first half Offaly goalkeeper Paddy Dunican powered in wonder goal to set them back.

“The fellas showed huge character to get back into contention and then that goal was a killer blow for us at that time given how hard the fellas worked,” said McNulty on the goal.

“All credit to their keeper who’s able to come through with such incisiveness and score a cracking goal, but we weren’t happy with how easy he was able to get through in the manner he did.

“Another hammer blow was in the second half when they stretched out the lead so far again and the fellas dug in and got back into contention.

“There’s grounds for encouragement and optimism and we have to turn this around and rectify this going forward.”