Westmeath hurling boss pleased with display despite loss to offaly

 

New Westmeath senior hurling manager Michael Ryan was in a positive mood in Cusack Park last Sunday evening, despite his troops losing their first competitive game under his tutelage, a Walsh Cup opener against Offaly.

At the outset, Ryan stated: “We started reasonably well, but we lost our goalkeeper early on and we lost our way for a while. Offaly are a very streetwise team, with a lot of good hurlers, and we gave them too much time and space in the first half. But we played much better half against the wind in the second half.”

The bainisteoir conceded that Stephen Quirke’s two goals for the visitors in the first half were game-changers. “Yes, they were crucial to the result, while 'Nipper’ (Niall Dowdall) was a bit unlucky as their goalkeeper made a great save. This time of the year, in these conditions, goals are huge.”

Despite his wind-assisted charges trailing by nine points, Ryan was not despondent at half-time.

“I felt we still had a chance at the start of the second half and then we got a few scores on the board. It came down to the 'goal’ being disallowed at the end. I thought it could have been allowed, but sure that’s the nature of sport. Sometimes decisions go for you, more times they go against you, but it would have been a very interesting finish had that 'goal’ ('scored’ by Niall Dowdall) been allowed.”

The Waterford man conceded that his side struggled by times to score from open play. “To get scores from play is something we have to work at. We haven’t done a lot of shooting practice and we’ve got to develop that part of our game. We have plenty of hurling ability, but sometimes you’ve got to figure out the way to score and to get the ball to the lad in the best position.”

Overall, Ryan was quite upbeat, and he concluded by saying: “I was proud of the effort of the players. We brought on a few subs and they made a big impression. We’ve Galway next week and that’s another big step-up for us. These are the days you find out about yourselves as a management team.'

'I’m happy enough overall, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. We’ve worked hard over the past seven weeks and our first big test is the London game (February 15). We’re building towards that. Hopefully we’ll have the colleges boys back and a few lads back from injury,” Ryan added.