Laois manager Sugrue reflects on League campaign ahead of Div 3 Final

For the fifth time in twelve months, John Sugrue and the Laois footballers will be making the trip to Croke Park. Prior to the Laois footballers' training on Saturday morning, manager Sugrue took some time to talk about their upcoming Division 3 League final.

It was a strange one in that Laois still did not know who they would meet in the final, with Louth and Westmeath due to play their postponed game later that evening - with Laois meeting the winner, which we now know to be Westmeath. At the time though, neither Sugrue nor his players even knew whether the game would be played in Croke Park or not.

Laois had already secured back-to-back promotions and their place in the final following their win over Carlow in the final round of games and results falling in their favour, but Laois were awaiting the result of the rescheduled game to know who they would face in the final. A draw between Westmeath and Louth in the Gaelic Grounds last weekend in Drogheda was enough for the Lake County to book their place in the final this Saturday against Laois.

Westmeath and Louth are the only two teams to inflict defeats on this Laois side in the League since Sugrue’s tenure began, and the Laois manager reflected on those defeats:
"You lose games and you learn from them as equally as when you win games. There are little phases in games that you learn from, and the two defeats (Westmeath and Louth) were two steep learning curves.

"Whether we didn't turn up exactly right on the day or we got our shape wrong. But it is a chance for us to go back and improve on what we did.

"That day against Westmeath our execution was particularly poor. Our decision making was poor. In saying that, Westmeath imposed a lot of that on us as well. All we can do is look back on that game and see what went wrong and see where we can improve.

Laois have had a mixed League campaign to date, with consistency highlighted as one of the concerns amongst supporters.
"Throughout the league, we have been patchy within games so we are just trying to iron things out so we are more consistent over the 70 minutes.

The Carlow game probably was the most consistent we have been to be fair.”

"The Carlow game probably was the most consistent we have been to be fair. But there were a lot of focus points in that. It was against a near neighbour so you have the rivalry and then you had the fact that we could get promoted. So that brought a lot of focus to our fellas minds and hopefully a league final will do the same.”

Competition for places in the starting fifteen and indeed the match-day twenty-six is high, and that’s exactly what Sugrue is after:

"We have a nice bit of competition in the squad right now and that is what we are looking at. The past is the past and we can't look at that too much but we have healthy competition.

"It is all about guys trying to do what we are looking for them to do. If they do then they will have a shot at getting on the team.”

Laois’ last day out in Croke Park, albeit under unusual circumstances, was against Louth in Round 2 of the League and while things didn’t necessarily go right for them on the day, they bounced back to make it to the final.

"That day we shipped three goals in eight or nine and any day you do that, you are going to struggle to win the game.

"We are there now, and we are there on merit as the league table doesn't lie. We got the rub of the green with a few results on the last day and we are going to take our chance”, said Sugrue.

We are there now, and we are there on merit as the league table doesn't lie. We got the rub of the green with a few results on the last day and we are going to take our chance.

Laois will face Westmeath in the Division 3 League final at as part of a triple header in Croke Park this Saturday at 4.45pm.