Minor Matters 2014 Reflection

Disappointment was not the word leaving Drogheda Saturday evening, a humiliating 13 point defeat at home to Wexford.
It was nearly as bad as 2005 when the Kilkenny minors beat us.

But how?

Looking at the squad beforehand,
the management team’s experience
and
even the home advantage.
I could do nothing but tip us to win.

But, in fact, all these factors actually went against us on the day.

It can sometimes happen to young players, it’s a big day they’ve looking forward to for so long and when you want to perform the most it just doesn’t happen.

These factors instead of relieving pressure actually compound to sap the energy from our talented lads legs hence the lack of intensity we showed.

It’s common for young players to think, sometimes in the actual game we should be beating Wexford!! and we’re not!! You could see the panic setting in on Saturday. The more they tried and the more things didn’t work and as a result it takes away all their confidence which then affected their decision making and we left with forcing things such as missing goal chances and kicking away simple free’s.

The Wexford lads with no pressure on their shoulders found it easier to get into the game and do the simple things and their confidence grew and grew. Quite simply, the opposite happened our lads.

These lads will be back though, all good players that every club in the county would love to have, they’ll learn from the game and most importantly the occasion and bring it to Longford on the 30^th of this month in Drogheda.

Just wait and see.

 

Sidenote: Hunterstown Rovers have a gem in Ryan Burns as we all know but Goalkeeper  Niall Carrie from the same club also has a Bright future. Matthew Corcoran also, who I think can play again next season was highly impressive on the day.