‘!t's about putting pride back in the jersey’ - Duff

Laois Nationalist Reporter 

LAOIS Ladies football manager Stephen Duff has said his side ‘were beaten by the better team’ on Sunday as Cavan ran out 11-point winners in Portlaoise. The sides were in the LOETB Centre of Excellence for a top-of-the-table clash, with Cavan starting the day top of Division 3 of the Ladies National Football League, two points and as many places above Laois.

The Ulster side scored a remarkable 1-9 without reply on their way to a 12-point lead at half time. Cavan were relentless in the first half, but they were helped by Laois missing a series of scoring chances throughout the half, particularly in the opening quarter.

Duff says "it would have been a different game" had his side been able to take those early opportunities. We had three or four goal chances that would have completely changed the momentum of the game," he said.

"We missed those chances and then Cavan came alive - and they've an awful lot of pace in the team. Missing those goal chances early on killed us because there isn't as much between the two teams as the scoreline reflects."

But Duff conceded that "we were beaten by the better team, no ifs, buts or maybes about it."

The Laois manager singled out as the Cavan players who caused his side the most of problems in open play, particularly on the counter-attack.

“We knew their threats - Aisling Sheridan, Ellie Brady, Catherine Dolan - all very good players," Duff said. "We stood off them, we were reactive, and we waited for things to happen before we made our move. We have to take our medicine now because it's been a trend in every single game this year that we're not playing for the first 20 or 30 minutes."

Laois, however, did turn things around in the second half and outscored Cavan by 0-9 to 1-5, which Duff says will be a source of encouragement going forward. "That second half is what we expected from the whole game," he said.

"Two teams with not much between them - and if we lost by one point or two points then ok, so be it. That's kind of what we were expecting today - either win or lose by no more than a point or two - but that first half was a killer and just killed the game for us totally."

In the final round of fixtures, Laois will travel to McCauley Park to play second-place Wexford in what will be a shootout to join Cavan in the League Final. But Duff is under no illusions that Laois will need a huge performance in that game if they are to have their day in the sun.

"We're still in with a shout - but it's not about League finals at this stage," Duff said. "What it's about now is putting pride back in the jersey after that first half. We were all really hurt and we tried to put it right - and in some ways we did put it right after half time.

"Wexford is not the be all and end all; yes, it would be lovely to be in a League final, but it's about putting pride back in that jersey before the championship starts in a month's time."