O'Brien laments 'unforced errors' as hurlers beaten
By Gerry Buckley
After his troops had lost out by a six-point margin to a more experienced and battle-hardened Carlow side in the second round robin game of the Joe McDonagh Cup last Saturday afternoon in TEG Cusack Park, Westmeath senior hurling manager Kevin O’Brien was in pragmatic mood when he spoke to the assembled media.
“We paid for a couple of unforced errors, like misjudging the flight of the ball which ended with a Carlow player burying it in the net. We were beaten by six points, and it was a bit like the Laois game here in the league when we led by two points after 45 minutes and we had a little spell where we go out of the game and came away from the game plan. These top teams will punish you for that. That’s the bottom line,” he stated.
“However, I just said to the players that this time last year Kildare had two points from two games and they went on to win the Joe McDonagh Cup. We’re in the same position, and we’ve Laois here in two weeks from now. It’s a massive game, a winner-takes-all game. We have to win it. We have to knuckle down now and correct those few little mistakes from today. It’s still in our hands. Win the next three games and we’re in the final. It’s very clear for us now. It is what it is, we know what we have to do,” he added.
He was asked about some fine saves made by new goalkeeper Sean Jackson, and responded thus: “Yeah, Sean did really well. He couldn’t do a whole lot about the four goals. That’s what Carlow do, they go for goals. I think they got seven here last year.”
He went on to highlight a statistic which greatly influenced the outcome: “In the first half, we won 78 per cent of the ball in and around the middle. In the second half, it was 28 per cent. That tells you the story of the game. They packed that midfield area to do that, and it worked for them. We brought in fresh legs around the middle to try and win those breaking balls, those rucks, but it didn’t work. That’s it.”
Overall, the Clonkill man remains upbeat. “The lads are training hard. It’s a much improved Westmeath team. There was a great crowd here and people are getting behind them, which is what we want. We need to start matching that with results. We were playing Derry and Mayo in the league – and no offence is meant to them – but Carlow were playing Clare and Dublin. We don’t want to keep going on about learning and it being a young team, we have to stand up for ourselves at some stage. Carlow had a much more experienced team out there. I’m proud of the lads, but of course you’d have to be a bit disappointed. We have 38 lads training hard,” he opined.
He concluded by talking about injuries to some key players. “Johnny (Bermingham) got a bit of a knock today. Killian (Doyle) is back after being out for eight or nine weeks. Peter Clarke tore a hamstring in training last week, but we have to absorb these injuries. Darragh (Egerton) has got a bit of game time in to him. This competition is very condensed, but we have a two-week break now and we’re playing Offaly in a challenge in O’Connor Park. So, it’s onwards and upwards.”