Royals ‘battling performance’ delights Farrell

DUDLEY FARRELL, standing in for manager Colm Coyle, had reason to be bullish.

“It was 20 minutes before our first score. Maybe that’s down to nerves, there are a lot of lads out there who wouldn’t have tasted that level of football before, and maybe it took them that long to get up to the pace of the game.

“I thought Dublin pulled their half-forwards out in the first half to leave space for the long ball into their full-forward line. We were trying to counteract that but the conditions meant the ball slid rather than hopped, which might be a nicer ball for forwards. But I thought we addressed any flaws at half-time and came out fighting in the second half. We won most of the breaks in the middle of the field after half-time.