'Robbie’s leaving, so that makes the hill a bit harder to climb'- Portarlington GAA's Pat Roe

Portarlington made a strong start to this year’s AIB Leinster Club Senior Football Championship, easing to victory over Old Leighlin of Carlow to secure their place in the quarter-finals. Their next assignment comes in two weeks’ time when they travel to Louth to face Naomh Mairtín.

Manager Pat Roe reflected afterwards that, given the short turnaround from their Laois county final replay, the primary aim was simply to get the job done and move forward.

“Yeah, that’s really it I suppose. We had just a week to turn around from the replay of the county final. That was on our minds a bit. We wanted to get a workmanlike performance and just get over the line really and we did,” he said.

Portarlington were back in action just seven days after overcoming Courtwood, and although there had been celebrations in the aftermath of that success, Roe was encouraged by the mentality the group brought into this provincial opener.

“Right, they should. I mean the county final is the county final and the county championship is the county championship, so there was no issue with that. And look, we recovered well during the week. I thought the mindset was quite good. A lot of the stuff we did, particularly around our hard work and our work ethic, I was quite pleased with,” Roe said.

Port controlled most of the contest but were frustrated not to have put the game beyond doubt earlier, particularly before a black card for Ronan Coffey allowed Old Leighlin to find a foothold again.

“There are other things I’m not happy with. I thought we’d a dominance for 10 minutes in the second-half, and we didn’t finish the game off. We allowed Leighlin to get a purple patch there, you know, that caused us a bit of trouble. We’ve lots to look at before the Monasterboice game,” he said.

A key tactical feature of Port’s approach was how they pressed Old Leighlin’s short kick-outs, something Roe said had been identified in advance.

“That was part of our plan. We looked at Old Leighlin. We thought they were very competitive around the middle third on long kick-outs. We also looked and thought they like to go a bit short, and again, we did see opportunities for us. I thought throughout the game we did get joy out of that,” Roe admitted.

However, Port will now have to navigate the remainder of the provincial campaign without some of the players that led them to Laois SFC glory. Sean Byrne and Jake Foster were missing on Saturday evening, having already returned to Australia, and another significant loss is imminent in the form of full-back Robbie Pigott, who’s also going back Down Under.

“Robbie’s leaving, so that makes the hill a bit harder to climb. But look, we’ve got good depth in the squad and there’s an opportunity now for lads to stake a claim for a place. We’re in a quarter-final and there’s a lot to play for. We’ll work on the basis that we still have a team that’s capable of winning a quarter-final,” Roe concluded.

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