it was a good win, all away ones are and hopefully it won't pancake like last year when we won in Louth in the opening game as well. conditions were tough for both teams with the pitch very heavy and a swirling type of wind. the misty rain that fell in the second half made it much more awkward and the game really dropped off in quality with endless hand passing over and back across the field. realistically it was awful stuff, both teams had really poor periods, Sligo were really bad and seemed obsessed with the hand passing game with no end product.
There failure to make any real head way was probably down to our defensive structure, Timmons mostly played as sweeper, with both wing backs tucked back in line with him, with the two wing forwards back in the wing back position and both midfielders in the space in front of Timmons. at times we had no forward in the opposite half so it was a lot of bodies for them to get through. they had no real target man and didn't try to change it up either which suited us. then we pushed forward we really only went with four forwards and it was noticeable that the wing backs, midfield never pushed up in support. many of our scores came from counter attacks in the first half or from winning kick outs and moving the ball quickly, in fairness we scored some excellent points. downside, was that with none or one forward alone inside we ended up crabbing across the field, this was more of a problem in the second half. we don't have the pace or mobility currently at 6, 8 or 9 to make that big line break from deep when the space appears. we hung on after a very long period of the second half when we didn't score and missed some awful chances and probably a few changes should have been made to spark it on. in fairness once we got the late goal , they gave up and we kicked a point to give the scoreboard a better reflection.
in terms of the team, Osborne didn't have much to do and the kick outs weren't really tested, full back line was solid with Timmons as the cover, whether he is suitable for later in the year remains to be seen. both wing backs did ok and pushed on near the end when it opened up a bit. As a pair midfield was solid, Lillis probably had his best first half in a long time and caught a lot of ball, they didn't really push forward. the forwards were probably so/so. all at times had their moments but collectively it wasn't great. evan, barry and corbett were average enough, evan having no real luck with his shooting, lowry was very good in the first half and kingston was very clinical with his shots. Swayne was very busy when he came in and walker once again was lively capped off with a goal. none of the other raft of subs were on long enough to do anything.
