“We just lost control of the game” - Tullamore manager

WITH time ticking away in Sunday's Leinster Club Senior Football Championship quarter-final clash between Tullamore and The Downs, I took advantage of a brief hold up in play to type the opening paragraph of my match report.

With Tullamore leading by 3-11 to 2-4 and The Downs displaying all the hallmarks of a beaten team, it was lavishing praise on Tullamore's performance, describing it as their best, most controlled display in a modern era of great dominance.

The three in a row Offaly champions were excellent for a good 55 minutes plus and that 3-11 to 2-4 score was a very fair reflection of how much better they were. Yet it almost unravelled late on as they conceded two soft goals to give the Westmeath side a glimmer of hope and then two Luke Loughlin two pointers made it a two point game with three minutes of injury time played.

Five minutes of injury time had been announced but with further delays in that, we knew that there would be a minimum of six played and almost unbelievably, Tullamore were in serious peril, out on their feet, praying for the final whistle and looking at a devastating defeat in their face.

Thankfully, they managed to turn the tide in those frantic, nerve shattering last few minutes, getting a couple of soft frees, keeping The Downs at bay by their wits rather than intuition and eventually getting out of their own half – managing to stay in enemy territory for most of the last 90 seconds plus.

That late upheaval prompted a quick rewrite on the final whistle and while that may be no bad thing for them, it is hard to understand how Tullamore went from being so in control to holding on by their finger tips - but their manager Paul McConway had a very simple explanation when he spoke 40 minutes after the final whistle.

“We just lost control of the game, as simple as that. You are playing against good teams and you lose control. With the way the rules have gone now, it can get very tight.

“It was largely a great performance for 55 minutes but unfortunately these games aren't won in 55 minutes, they are usually 70 minutes that will win or lose a game.

“A few things happened that led to us losing control a little bit. A couple of injuries and we were forced to make a few changes. It just became a little bit chaotic and look, The Downs are a good team with some good players and they took full advantage of that period where we lost control.

“In the end we are just delighted to come out with the win.”

As a manager on the line, what do you do when a team suddenly switches from cruise control to crisis mode?

“It never crosses your mind that a game is over. When you are looking at the clock, you are always conscious that anything can happen. We will be disappointed with the goals, there is no point in saying otherwise because we had possession of the ball high up the field and we lost it. We probably didn't control possession in the last few minutes as well as we could have or should have.

“It was disappointing in terms of losing control of the game the way we did but in the same breath, if you had given me a two point win at the start, I would have been ecstatic over it.”

The narrow winning margin should not disguise how well Tullamore played for long periods but the concession of those four goals was the one black spot on the afternoon. Tullamore scored three quality goals themselves but none of The Downs three pointers were in that category – they were either a mixture of soft and clumsy from a Tullamore perspective, contrived rather than manufactured.

McConway agreed:

“No and we looked at The Downs and we knew they scored an awful lot of goals. If you told me, The Downs were going to score four goals, you would have been hard pressed to see us winning it. Again, we did do just about enough in that 55 minute spell to build up a big enough lead. We would have preferred to make it a little bit easier for ourselves coming up the stretch.”

He admitted that Tullamore's control of the game seemed unbreakable.

“We would have been very happy. I know they had a five minute spell in the first half when they scored 1-2 and a soft goal as well but it was a good performance. But as I said to you, a good performance for 55 minutes, at this level, is generally not good enough. The Downs have some really good players that will take advantage and they did by the end of it.”

In the wind up, Tullamore fell across the line and the manager saluted the small late moments that made all the difference.

“It took Niall Furlong winning a brilliant kickout and then he caught the ball at the edge of the square as well. It is those moments there. We were big enough as well and had the experience to see it out as well.”

It was suggested that a 7-8 point Tullamore win would have been a more realistic reflection of the way the game went.

“We looked to have good control of the game but at the end of the day, you switch off for five or six minutes and as you see here, a lot of damage can be done, especially with the two pointers as well. We are reasonably happy with most of the game, there is no point in saying otherwise but we have to look at the last five or six minutes and how we controlled it.

“It is going to be a step up again the next day so to perform for 55 minutes won't be enough.”

He didn't back away from the suggestion that Tullamore are in a good place as they face into a home semi-final against Ballyboden St Enda's with a final place very possible.

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“Absolutely. These lads are looking to push on as well. It is a great challenge for these lads. Coming down to Cusack Park today was a great challenge, a great step up for us, as a club as well. We want to be winning these games and we look at last year, we ran Cuala to three points. We wanted to get back to this stage again and have another crack at that. We are here now so will put the heads down for two weeks and prepare for Ballyboden. We would hope to be there or there abouts.”