Laois Boss Calls Out Sloppiness Despite Crucial Away Victory In Louth

Monday, 31 January 2022 at 14:56

Three goals for the O'Moore County set the tone for the win.

Laois manager Billy Sheehan is certainly setting a high standard for his players this season.

Three goals and two points against a side they hadn't beaten in seven years would be a fantastic day at the office for most, but Sheehan was quick to note that there's plenty to work on going forward.

On the positive front the inside forwards have really hit the ground running, Gary Walsh opened his league account with 2-2, Mark Barry added 0-3 and newly appointed joint captain Evan O'Carroll was busy linking up with his counterparts.

Mickey Harte's Louth won't be the toughest test of the O'Moore's resilience this season but their defensive system was a good starting point as Sheehan, Conway and McDonald look to build the foundations of a new Laois outfit.

Praise from Billy Sheehan in the aftermath was reserved for some of the tenacious defending on display, rather than attacking prowess:

It was exactly the same a week ago in Dublin in Alex Mohan.

It's amazing to see him and James (Kelly) playing to such a high standard. Alex' block stopped a goal against Dublin and the same with James today, he took the ball off a player potentially going through on goal.

They're corner back and, they know what we want. They know the rules of engagement back there and they're producing the goods.

Look we're disappointed with some things (sloppy passing) to be honest with you, but again I go back to the elements today, I suppose it was difficult but at the same time, we trained in the elements in a number of occasions and we spoke about that.

We haven't put into fruition what we're doing on the training pitch. Again myself and the management team will have to look at what we're producing on the training pitch if we're not reproducing it on a match day.

On the test posed by their opponents, Sheehan added:

Louth came out and dropped lads behind the ball and decided to play defensive against us, but would you expect anything else from a Mickey Harte team.

They came through last year and nearly beat Offaly in the Leinster championship and had a very good league campaign, so it was very important to come up here today and get the result.

We knew that wasn't going to be easy.