'We'll have to play better' warns Frankie as Brigid's march on

St Brigid's star Frankie Dolan has warned that his side will have to improve significantly if they are to reach another All-Ireland final in the new year. The Roscommon and Connacht champions advanced to the All-Ireland semi-finals with a 1-12 to 0-7 win over Fulham Irish in last Sunday's quarter-final at Ruislip. "We're in an All-Ireland semi-final and that's where we wanted to be. We wanted to get back there after winning the county final. We're playing the Leinster champions next, whoever that will be, and it's going to be a lot tougher. We'll have to play a hell of a lot better if we want to get to an All-Ireland final. Today's performance wouldn't be good enough," Frankie told the 'Westmeath Independent' last Sunday. "It's probably a good thing that we didn't perform to the way we can, we probably did for the first 10-15 minutes. We played probably the best football we've played in a while but then it stopped. It was an eight-point win, we would have taken that any day coming over here. You don't know who you're going to be playing against really, we had a video but you can't really learn much from that. I think London football is getting stronger." The Kiltoom/Cam men will face either Westmeath champions Garrycastle or St Brigid's of Dublin in the last four. A clash with Garrycastle would see Frankie and his brothers (Garvan and Darren) in opposition to a number of their first cousins - but the Westmeath side have a major hurdle to overcome first as they prepare to meet the highly-rated Dublin champions in Sunday week's Leinster final (Tullamore, 2pm). Frankie was pleased with the way Brigid's started the game in London. "We talked before the game that we wanted to get a good start because we didn't start well in the last few games. We got a good start today, thank God. We kicked 1-3 or 1-4, but we seemed to take our foot off the gas and let the London lads back into it. We have to try and stop that as the next team we'll be playing will punish us a lot more than Fulham Irish did today." While Frankie said the Brigid's players would have "a bit of craic" on their return home last Sunday night, he doubted whether they would be allowed to enjoy much of a break for Christmas. "After a lot of that today, I don't know if there will be much of a break, but we'll enjoy tonight and we'll have a few jars. We'll be back training next week, there will be plenty of programmes for certain lads, and I suppose it's not going to be an enjoyable Christmas! he quipped. St Brigid's manager Noel O'Brien was pleased with last Sunday's victory. "You never know what to expect coming over here. We started off great and that was our plan, to try and get on top early on and not let them build any momentum. We did that, we got 1-3 or 1-4 but, having said that, we probably missed the same amount. When they had the player sent off, we kind of sat back a little bit and didn't push on like we should have pushed on. We let them creep back into it, but it was the kind of the game that we never looked like losing," he said. O'Brien also praised London champions Fulham Irish for their efforts last Sunday. "They had a lot of very good footballers there ... they never gave up even after that had a man sent off. Sometimes when you are a man down, everyone ups their game and that's probably what they did. To be honest, we're happy to get out of here with a win." Brigid's class and top level experience came to the fore when needed last Sunday. "It's something you build up over the years when you're playing against the top teams - you get up to a higher level of intensity and higher level of skill. That was probably the difference out there," reflected O'Brien. "We were that bit more skilful and we were able to move the ball quicker. When we did that, we were very good but sometimes we carried the ball into the tackle. They were big strong men and once they hit you, you felt it."