Good few lessons to take away from today's game. We started off sluggish but gradually got into the game and by half time it was ours to lose. Once offaly got the red card we didn't know what to do with the spare man, this has been a problem for us in the past. The two goals offaly got came from lack of communication in the back line. Unfortunately, Mullaney didn't seem at ease at full back and Dunne seemed to miss read a good few situations today. Thought Podge Delaney did well at centre back and that the two yellows he received were ridiculous. To be honest thought the ref lost the run of himself after the red card and there were several questionable decisions. However our discipline slipped and that's something we've got to improve on. Thought Phelan was great and worked tirelessly in the forwards. We need to get better with our shooting decisions and pass it to the man in the best position as opposed to just going for pot shots.
We have this awful habit of turning in on ourselves when the going gets tough. Instead the lads need to get it together and play cohesively. Thought Corby did well and covered a lot of ground. Duggan did well but should have backed himself for that goal chance in the second half. We still let the sliotar out too easy from the forwards and I hope that they work on this in training. In saying that I still think that the half back line is not right and leaves a lot of room for errors. Missed the likes of Fiachra fennell today as he actually tracks back. Would prefer to see Hartnett manning the backs as he seems to be able to get the lads to communicate and keep some sort of formation. Definitely need to work on breaking the ball better in the backs and working it out the line at a faster pace.
Today was definitely an eye opener, we slipped back into some bad habits instead of pushing on and punishing Offaly, we were the ones that got punished. Still positive in comparison to this time last year. Hopefully the lads will tackle these issues head on and be prepared for Tipperary.
