COMPLACENCY and goal chance creation are issues Down must work on ahead of their Tailteann Cup Final against Meath, says coach Mickey Donnelly.
The latter might seem strange, given that the Mournemen netted an amazing eight goals in the semi-final thrashing of Laois and could well have scored four more.
Yet Tyrone native Donnelly accepted that Down will have to be ruthless against the Royals, commenting:
“You do surely, and we won’t get as many chances as that against Meath. We have always prided ourselves as a group on creating goal opportunities. We pride ourselves on doing a lot of video prep too and when we went over the tape after the Meath match there were very few [goal] opportunities, very few chinks to get in.
“We only got the one goal. We’re just hoping that there’ll be the chance of maybe getting one or two more the next day because we’re going to need them. We’ll find something to criticise them about, don’t worry!”
That last line was delivered with a laugh, after Down won by 22 points against Laois, but the memory of the loss to Meath in the third group game earlier this month still lingers, revealed Donnelly:
“We were phenomenally disappointed that day, we were really disappointed. We felt that we were well-prepared going into the game…but Meath were excellent, in terms of ability to score, scores from distance. We just really struggled, so we have a huge challenge ahead of us.”
The challenge is to convince the Down players that winning in Croke Park doesn’t come as easily as it did on Sunday, so Donnelly will remind them of that Meath match:
“I suppose, sometimes off the back of a big win - be it at club level, schools level, county level, it doesn’t matter – there’s that complacency within the next day, because you think you’ve got this whole thing worked out.
“We know now we have massive challenge the next day against a Meath team that beat us only three weeks ago.
“We’ve been on the road now four consecutive weekends, and that started off in Parnell Park against Meath with a defeat. Thank God we got three wins now over the last three weekends to turn that over.
“That just gives us that awareness of what we’re facing now and that’s a huge challenge.”
Donnelly added that Kilcoo lad Ceilum Doherty seems fine after going off with a head knock early in the second half against Laois:
“‘Doc’ just picked up a bit of a head injury and you just can’t be too careful at the minute. We’ll get him assessed. Thank God, he seemed to be in good form there in the changing room, he did seem to have his wits about him. Fingers crossed, we’ll get him assessed over the next few days and he’ll be OK.”
