No excuses from Portlaoise as Malachy McNulty refuses to play blame game

No excuses, no blame.

Many is the manager who has watched his side lose a game they ought to have won and come out swinging. Malachy McNulty, to his credit, opted instead to keep any powder that may have been smouldering inside him dry.

“We came into this game feeling we had a genuine chance of taking this game to these guys,” said the Portlaoise manager.

“There’s no point doing any blame games with any individual players or referees or anything like that. When the result is in, the result is in.

“I really wish I could give you more at this time, but par for the course when you get a result like that is to go away, keep your head down, and think about it for a couple of weeks, try and reflect what went right and what went wrong, and where we left it behind.”

This was defeat by a thousand ‘if onlys’ and yet the focus will inevitably fall on Paul Cahillane’s incredible miss from a free in injury-time when a simple tap over the bar would have most likely been enough to at least give the Laois side a crack at extra-time.

“Wait till I tell you something on that,” said McNulty when asked about Cahillane’s most unfortunate error. “Paul said something to me at the start of the year when I decided to take this job. He said there was great admiration for those who, when it’s not going right, bounce back.

“He was saying it in relation to myself taking the job, taking a step back from playing but wanting to give more. It was all about bouncing back.

“It will be a testament to Paul’s character about how he bounces back from this. These things happen. Sometimes the limelight is on some lads and there is extra attention on them, but Paul is a fantastic fella, very professional in the manner in which he approaches his game and in a couple of days’ time it will be yesterday’s news.”

McNulty had nothing but admiration for his charges, who claimed a ninth straight Laois county title earlier this year and ought to have added an eighth provincial title to their roll of honour in O’Connor Park yesterday afternoon.

Ultimately, it may be some of the scores they conceded rather than those spurned which they regret more. McNulty hardly demurred when it was put to him that the two goals they conceded in the first half dominated the talk at the interval.

“Goals win games and that proved it again today,” he said.

“They weren’t exactly marquee goals or well-worked goals. They were just breaking ball down and just a lad throwing a boot at one and a guy breaking the cover for the second. But, the result is in.”