Justin McNulty admits Kildare ‘will not be quaking in their boots’ despite Laois' nine-point win

A winning start to the Championship is usually cause for optimism, but Laois manager Justin McNulty was far from satisfied after his side’s victory over Offaly in Tullamore.

While the margin of victory looked convincing on paper, McNulty felt it did not accurately reflect the standard of performance his team delivered.

“I wouldn't describe it as being really thrilled. I think it's good to go away from home, it's good to beat your neighbours in a derby game on the first day out in the Championship. We were misfiring in various parts of our performance, and so were Offaly, thankfully. A sub-par Offaly team, we've defeated them away from home. Are we happy getting the Championship win? Yes, but are we happy with the performance? No,” he said.

Attention now quickly turns to a quarter-final meeting with Kildare, and McNulty acknowledged that his side’s display won’t have caused much concern for their next opponents.

“We weren't clinical in possession as a team, and we weren't clinical up front for sure. The Kildare management team will have been there watching that game and watching it on video; they certainly will not be quaking in their boots. We have a major, major battle and challenge ahead of us next week, and we have huge, huge improvements to do if we're going to be even competitive in that game,” McNulty said.

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While Laois limited Offaly’s key attacking threats, McNulty felt the hosts contributed significantly to their own downfall and never truly found their rhythm.

“I think Offaly just didn't get going today in the game. They probably had a couple of chances which they left behind them, and then their confidence dropped. We had some win-backs as well, which probably didn't let them get any momentum in the game. So we can't be too pleased about getting match-ups right. I think just Offaly were probably a bit subpar; they weren't firing on all cylinders, and we didn't have to be too good to beat them,” the Laois manager said.

Periods of wastefulness particularly frustrated the Laois boss, with his side struggling to make their possession count during key spells in both halves.

“Our work rate was high; we won the ball with pure grunt and grind and then coughed it up cheaply. We just weren't clinical in possession, we weren't clinical up front, and we need to rectify that before next week. Kick-outs wise, we lost the kick-out battle, and that's just not good enough for us. I think Offaly had more shots than us, so that tells its own story,” he said.

On the injury front, however, there was at least some positive news ahead of the trip to face the Lilywhites.

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“I think we've a clean bill of health for next week, and we need it because Kildare are a serious, serious outfit and we need to be so much better than we were today to even be competitive against them,” McNulty said.

McNulty is under no illusions about the scale of the task awaiting his side, particularly given how comprehensively Kildare got the better of them in last year’s league meeting.

“Kildare ran riot against us last year in Newbridge and were much superior. We've just got huge improvements to do to be able to compete with them away from home, but can we do that? We're capable of doing that if we knuckle down and shift our focus onto that. We're capable of going up there and giving them a game,” he added.

Laois did find some success with a direct approach into their full-forward line, though even that came with caveats given the conditions on the evening.

“I'm all for a fast, long ball game when it's on. The conditions today were actually difficult for that because the wind was swirling, and it was not a great kick-passing evening, but listen, when the ball is on long, get it long and fast, absolutely,” McNulty concluded.