Tommy Fitz happy with the win but is concerned about concession of points

TO say Tommy Fitzgerald was pleased with side after coming out with a 13-point victory over Down on Saturday evening, a side that he reckoned were slightly underrated coming in to the fixture, would be an understatement.

The victory is another huge leap towards joining Carlow in the Joe McDonagh Cup final, and though the winning margin was big, Fitzgerald reckons it wasn’t a great display from his team.

“It wasn’t spectacular and it probably wasn’t a vintage performance but we did what we had to do,” said the Laois boss after the game.

“This day four weeks ago we’d have taken this position, 100 percent, we’re still fighting and we’re still in the competition.”.

Fitzgerald was wary of Down as though Laois have put up some huge wins over them in recent years, the Mourne men have made some big opponents sweat this year.

“They’re a good team, and some of the talk this week was so disrespectful,” he stated. Some people are obviously not following Down’s progress, they’re a team who’ve made massive strides.

“They’ve had some good results this year and they should’ve beaten Carlow last week so I was really worried about that, to be honest with you. There was a bit of loose talk during the week presuming we’d beat them, it’s a very dangerous position to be in.”.

Fitzgerald wasn’t impressed that his side conceded 27 points in the game, but he praised the improvement in efficiency in front of the posts, which is often something he’s pointed out that needs improvement.

When asked if the concession of 27 was a worry he said, “It is, we conceded too much. They didn’t create too many goal chances but we wouldn’t be happy with their tally.”.

On his forwards, he added, “Our efficiency was way better, we were at 38% last week, but we were up around 70% today which was our best in a long time.

“We’re creating a lot of chances and that’s pleasing.” When it was put to Fitzgerald that this was a huge improvement on the performance against Carlow he was slightly taken aback and was quick to point out that Carlow are a quality side.

“Carlow are a good team as well, I don’t know what people do be looking at in terms of predicting games. Carlow have been at a higher level than us all year, they’re a good team with good players, they drew with Kilkenny two years ago, it’s a long time since Laois had a result like that.

“Sometimes people get ahead of themselves in this county for some reason, I don’t know what it is. They’re not properly analysing games judging by some of the loose talk I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks.

“We’re still fighting and we’re still in it, the end goal is still the same and that’s what we’re all striving towards. It’s been shoulder to the wheel all year, that setback hurt but we responded in the right way and I’m really proud of how the boys responded to that.” Stephen ‘Picky’ Maher’s tally of eight points on Saturday saw him overtake James Young as the all-time top championship scorer for Laois and Fitzgerald was full of praise for the Clough/Ballacolla man.

“What a brilliant Laois man with the service he’s given over the years. I saw first hand how he worked in the last six months to get back into contention.

“He’s a brilliant Laois man and massive around the dressing room, the boys all look up to him and we were thrilled to get him back this year.

“Fair play to him it’s a massive honour and he’ll go down as one of the all-time greats in Laois.” A trip to London is next for Laois and though they came away from Ruislip with a big win in March, Fitzgerald is still wary of any potential upsets and confirmed they’ll be travelling with a strong panel.

“We’re not in a final yet so we’ve to go over and get the job done before any talk of finals.

“They ran Antrim very close in Ruislip so they’re a different team at home.

“We had our full focus on Down this week and we’ll give the next fixture the same respect.”