Laois must change tactics if they are to win, says Micko
‘Bring ‘em on, bring ’em on’, roared the grinning Kerryman in reply. Never mind that Laois had just endured a harrowing time of it out on the pitch only to escape to fight another day, O’Dwyer was still the calmest man in the ground.
“Neither of the two teams deserved to lose, I think a draw was a very fair result,” he said.
If O’Dwyer was the calmest man in the stadium at that point then his captain Chris Conway was probably the most relieved. With 72 minutes played and his side a point down, it fell to the Arles-Kilcruise forward to stroke over the crucial equalising score.
The time between the ball dropping to his feet and the white flag being raised was probably no more than an handful of seconds but it seemed to take an eternity as the forward took a few steps and sized up the kick.
“It just fell right for me, really and I had a bit of room to run into before I hit it over,” he explained. “Darren [Rooney] missed one before that but you have to stay going to the death, whether it’s 35 or 40 minutes or whatever. We were going right to the end, we couldn’t just let it slip from us.”
Had Laois relinquished their crown yesterday they would have had few complaints. They kicked thirteen wides and they dropped the ball into goalkeeper Gary Connaughton’s arms on a further five occasions. Not good enough as O’Dwyer admitted.
“We had some woeful wide kicking from some of our players. I’ll tell you, I’ll give them something of a tanning over that. They were kicking balls way up in the air like fellas way down in my part of the country were doing fifty years ago. We should have been working the ball for scores. Those tactics will have to change if we’re to beat these fellas.”
The tactics needed reworking early on yesterday too when full-back Colm Byrne was called ashore and the defence went under the surgeon’s knife thanks to a number of quickly thought out positional switches.
“The changes that we did make worked for us, especially in the back line,” said ’keeper Fergal Byron. “Tom [Kelly] and Joe [Higgins] and [Aidan] Fennelly as well. He didn’t do anything wrong today. People were doubting him coming into the game because he’d be marking Dessie Dolan but he did very well.
“When Tom moved back he did fantastically well and we were never really under threat in the full-back line, really. We just couldn’t seem to convert our own chances at the other end. We couldn’t get our passes together, we couldn’t get it over the bar. We were kicking wayward shots and if you don’t take your scores you don’t win games.”
The bottom line now is that they meet again this Saturday. Replays haven’t been kind to Westmeath the past few years as any Meath supporter would gladly tell you, but their record in them against Laois is more assuring.
In 1995 and 1999 at minor and U21 level, the Lake County won Leinster titles at their rivals’ expense at the third and second attempt respectively. Both times at Tullamore. A bad omen for O’Dwyer’s men?
“Well at least this one won’t be in Tullamore, Byron joked. “Replays can always go either way. I know they’ve lost a few at senior level but we lost one to Dublin in ’99 too although we would hope we can learn from this one more than they did.
“We haven’t had as many games as they have had in the championship. We had Carlow in Carlow and then Meath. No disrespect to them, but Westmeath have had the tougher games. Bottom line is that we’re happy to have another chance. We would have grabbed it out of your hand with ten minutes to go.”
And with Tyrone awaiting the losers, the stakes have just got higher.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
