'It was our mistakes that led to their scores'- Laois GAA's Tommy Fitzgerald after Antrim defeat

Laois Senior Hurling manager Tommy Fitzgerald cut a dejected figure on Sunday afternoon after seeing his side ship four goals to Antrim and lose by 13 points in Belfast.

It leaves Laois in a perilous position where they must win their remaining two games against Carlow and Dublin to stay in Division 1B for 2026.

“There was probably a lot on the line there today and obviously it didn't go our way so we have to win next week and it’s as simple as that. It was poor, we're very disappointed with the performance.”

Fitzgerald believes that Laois made life easier for Antrim and that their early nervousness allowed Davy Fitz’s side an easy route into the contest.

“It was probably a bit of both. We lost Eanna in the warm-up, we lost Cha to a hamstring and Paddy Purcell so our whole half-forward line was gone after 50 minutes and that’s a crucial line. We didn't make life easy for ourselves either. The first 15-20 minutes we looked nervous, we just made mistake after mistake, handling error, giving the ball back to them.

So look, as I said to the lads inside it was mistake compounded by mistake. Antrim, they were good, they were physical, it was probably their best performance of the league. They were worthy winners, there's no doubt about that.”

Antrim had the aid of a slight breeze in the opening 35 minutes but the Laois manager says that it was their mistakes that afforded Antrim the luxury of scoring at will.

“It wasn't a huge wind, it was a nice day and the pitch was decent. I don't know if that fed too much into it to be quite honest. We had two goal chances in the first two minutes and we missed them both before they even scored. We just handed them too many scores and even one of the goals just came from our error. It wasn't because they were doing anything extraordinary. They were good in fairness to them and at times they did open us up. Too often, as I said already, it was our mistakes that led to their scores, which was disappointing.”

The former Laois hurler didn’t have any updates on the injuries suffered by Paddy Purcell, Cha Dwyer and Eanna Lyons but had some good news on Diarmaid Conway’s return from injury. The Clough-Ballacolla defender hasn't played since his side won the Senior Hurling Championship in October 2024.

“It's too early yet. He's (Diarmaid) back full train in the last couple of weeks. He'll get better week on week I'm sure.”

He ended the interview by saying that his Laois side has two options after a defeat like this and he’ll be hoping it’s the second option when they take on Carlow on Saturday at 1.45pm in Laois Hire O’Moore Park.

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“We had that conversation inside. There are two ways you can go now 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, it's a short turnaround. From our point of view and from the players' point of view, it just has to be about next Saturday now and trying to learn from today and trying to be better and respond the right way. There's no choice.”