Sucker punch goals costly but Laois not out of depth

Laois manager Justin McNulty saw his side lose for the first time in this year’s Tailteann Cup against Fermanagh in Longford but he was impressed with how his team performed against their Division 2 opponent.

Despite the loss they will now have a home preliminary quarter-final, which McNulty says they will have areas to work on ahead of.

“There’s positives of course, and negatives with areas for development,” said the Laois boss.

“We conceded three bad goals, we need to address how that happened and we can stop it happening going forward.

“That said, when those sucker punch goals were conceded the fellas didn’t down tools, they dug deep and they got us in a position to draw or potentially win the game and I think that’s a testament to the character of the fellas.”

Fermanagh operated in Division 2 of the National Football League this season and McNulty is impressed at how his side stacked up against a team at that level.

“That’s a team who played two divisions ahead of us this season and we didn’t look out of our depth so I’m happy about that and the performance and we know we’ve got improving to do and we know we’re now in championship with a knockout scenario in the preliminary quarter-final.

“We have to recover, rest and get ourselves prepared for knockout football,” he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Laois players warm up in Longford. Pic: Paul Dargan 

A positional change that caught the attention of the Laois contingent in the stands was that of Kieran Lillis operating at full back and McNulty praised the veteran’s versatility.

“Kieran is long in the tooth, he’s been around and he knows the territory,” said McNulty.

“Any time he’s called upon to do a job anywhere on the pitch he does it with professionalism and commitment. That’s what we need from all our players and we saw that from all our players, naturally there was parts of the game we weren’t happy with and the players won’t be happy with but we can fix those.

“They’re all fixable things and the players just have to be happy with their effort because the conditions were tough as well,” he said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Kieran Lillis took up a defensive position in Longford. Pic: Paul Dargan

There were a couple of injury scares for Laois with Dylan Kavanagh and Evan O’Carroll, but McNulty eased any fears as the preliminary quarter-final is just days away and he also provided an update on some of the players who have been missing.

“I think they were more knocks and cramps as opposed to serious injuries. We have a few boys getting back to fitness now as well so hopefully we will have near a full deck for next week.

“James Kelly will be there or thereabouts so we won’t be far off a full selection.

“Eoin (Barry) might not be there, it’ll be close and Ben (Dempsey) might not be there but we’re getting close to a comprehensive selection to pick from,” he concluded.

Laois have been drawn to play New York in Laois Hire O'Moore Park the Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final.