‘We have to win next week, it’s as simple as that’ - Fitzgerald

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A TOUGH couple of weeks lie in store for the Laois senior hurlers and manager Tommy Fitzgerald as they face into games against Carlow and Dublin knowing that two wins are needed to remain in Division 1B after Sunday’s loss to Antrim.

The game in Corrigan Park proved to be disastrous not just results wise but also on the injury front as three key players - Eanna Lyons, Cha Dwyer and Paddy Purcell - picked up knocks.

Speaking in Belfast after the game, Fitzgerald said, "We have to win next week, it’s as simple as that. It was poor and we were disappointed with the performance."

While acknowledging that the injuries did hamper his side’s chance in the contest, Fitzgerald was critical of his team’s performance and praised Antrim’s intensity.

“We lost Eanna in the warm up, then Cha and Paddy Purcell so our whole half forward line 40 minutes in were gone, but we didn’t make life easy for ourselves either.

"In the first 15 or 20 minutes we looked nervous, we made mistake after mistake, handling errors and giving the ball back to them.

"Antrim were good, they were physical, it was probably their best performance of the league and they were worthy winners, there’s no doubt about that."

Not one to take an easy excuse, the Laois boss dismissed that the wind played a major role in the game, and dwelled on the missed goal chances early on that perhaps proved costly.

"There wasn’t a huge wind, it was a nice day and the pitch was decent,” said Fitzgerald.

"We had two goal chances and we missed them before they even scored, and then we just handed them too many scores and even one of the goals came from our own error.

"They were good in fairness and at times they opened us up, but too often it was our own mistakes that led to their scores and that’s disappointing."

Whilst he said it’s too early to give an update on the players that were injured on Sunday, he did say that Diarmuid Conway is back to fitness earlier than was previously predicted earlier in the year, “He’s back in full training the last couple of weeks and he’ll get better week on week I’m sure.” A huge game against Carlow awaits on Saturday and Fitzgerald says his players don’t have a choice in that they have to regroup and look forward now to that game.

"We had that conversation inside, there’s two ways we can go after a disappointing performance like that, you can feel sorry for yourself and go into your shell or you can bounce back and respond the right way.

"We have a game in six days’ time, it’s a short turnaround so from our point of view and the players point of view it just has to be about next Saturday now and try to learn from today and be better and respond in the right way. We have no choice."