Laois senior football manager Justin McNulty says that his players were left disappointed with their performance following defeat to Offaly on Sunday.
Laois were 1-10 to 0-2 down at one stage in the first half and although they did improve from that point on, the slow start left them with a mountain to climb.
Reflecting on the defeat afterwards, manager McNulty says there are plenty of areas where improvements can be made.
He said: “There’s nobody in there proud of their performance. That’s the reality.
“And we need to get to a place where the majority of our team are proud of their performance.
“That said, I am happy that the fellas, when everything was going wrong, crazy amount of turnovers, missed opportunities, Offaly appearing to be able to score at ease for big periods in the game, they could have downed tools but they didn’t.
“They dug in, they fought back, they brought about a greater degree of respectability about the scoreline and that’s grounds for encouragement.
“Fellas are disappointed. They’ve put a huge amount of work in. They don’t go out and plan to cough up possession, but we did cough it up too often, on every part of the pitch.
“We weren’t clinical up front, and we weren’t patient enough in creating the right opportunities for ourselves up front.”
It is a quick turnaround for Laois now as they head to Ballinamore on Saturday to face Leitrim in their refixed Round 1 match.
Leitrim lost heavily to Clare at the weekend so Laois will be targetting this one in a bid to get off the mark.
McNulty said: “We have a major job of work to rectify things now, before we head to Ballinamore next Saturday.
“We’re not focusing on wins or losses. We’re focusing on a performance we can be proud of, and we can’t be proud of today’s performance.”
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