Egan encouraged by continued improvement

With Finbar Egan, there are no shortcuts.

The Roscommon intermediate ladies' football manager could have bemoaned the controversial penalty decision just before half time, which robbed his side of the first-half lead his side’s performance deserved against Galway on Sunday.

But as he continues his quest for improvement with this Roscommon group of players, it was the concession of 1-9 either side of half time that occupied his thoughts in the immediate aftermath of his side’s seven-point reversal at Tuam Stadium last Sunday.

“The penalty was harsh. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good decision. But they had a goal disallowed prior to that for a square ball, and I’d have been disappointed with that if I was the Galway manager. I didn’t see it as a penalty but he (the referee) didn’t see Caoimhe Cregg being pulled to the ground as a penalty either.

“Look, these things balance out in games. That’s not why we lost, but it was a sickner. The Galway player hadn’t taken the ’45. Two players fell inside and it’s a penalty against us. They were both at it, but I wouldn’t worry about it. Saoirse Wynne was fantastic for us last week and she was very good again today. We’ve a lot of decent, honest players who are getting better as the games go on.

“The girls didn’t give up, and they never will. A seven-point defeat is hard on them. It looks like a hammering on paper, but I look at the effort and attitude in a group of players that are willing to work hard. Hopefully, they’ll get what they deserve,” he reflected.

Unearthing that consistency in performance is obviously part of Egan’s grand masterplan but, for the moment, he was satisfied with the green shoots that emerged after being tested by a high-quality outfit like Galway.

“A lot of girls did very well. They got a run on us in the second half. They came through the middle. There was the sucker punch just before half time. With a few minutes to go, we were two points but we ended up conceding a penalty and a point straight after the kickout. Going in three points down was hard to take because I felt we worked well enough in that first half.

“They were in an All-Ireland senior final last year. They had a lot of quality on the pitch and they had a lot of quality to bring on. We would look at ourselves and say there are things we need to do to get better. But it’s only our third game together, and we are improving. A lot of girls showed that they’re at that standard.

“You want to be playing teams like Galway every week. The key is that the girls can see that they can play at this level. Now we have to push on. Fitness was an issue in the second half, they had the legs on us, which we’d hope they wouldn’t have going forward.

“We’ve good buy-in from a lot of the girls. We’re training up to four times per week at the moment. We’re getting girls down from Dublin every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and they’re putting in a huge effort. Now we have to press on and make the best of that.

“Everyone, including management, is putting their shoulder to the wheel. I think that the future is bright for Roscommon. We’ve picked up a few injuries which have limited us in games but we’ll definitely have Ellen Irwin back for selection the next day. We’ll also have Lisa O’Rourke, and they’re two good solid players to be able to bring in,” he explained.

Roscommon’s aim is to keep their place in Division Two, and Egan has encouraged his players to grasp further opportunities that are appearing on the horizon.

“We need to start turning performances into results. That was a decent performance today. We played well against Monaghan in the second half. We did well and got the win against Clare. We’re playing Donegal in two weeks’ time and we need to start getting results on the board.

“We need two to three more wins to consolidate our position in Division Two. Cork and Galway are the obvious two to go back up, but we don’t want to be one of the two teams going back down. We want to be in the shake-up when it comes to the last round of games, so we need to target the next few games, and try to get a couple of wins,” he concluded.