Longford manager Paddy Christie critical over the mistakes that were made against Tipperary

Following on from their narrow two-point defeat away to the league favourites Laois, Longford’s promotion prospects from Division 4 were dealt a bad blow as they suffered another narrow loss on Sunday last at home to Tipperary.

Reflecting on the defeat after the match, the Longford manager Paddy Christie acknowledged that Longford should have pressed home their advantage during their dominant opening fifteen minutes of the contest and that only leading by three points at that stage was very disappointing.

“It was regrettable on the basis that we were very good for much of the first half and I thought we played very well during the opening twenty minutes of the contest. It was a combination of us taking the foot off the pedal and Tipp raising their game that triggered their resurgence. 

“We also gave away the ball a few times and conceded simple scores. They were up by two points at half-time but really we should have been a couple points ahead based on that opening twenty-minute spell we had.”

Longford were ahead by 0-4 to 0-1 after 15 minutes but Tipp reeled off six unanswered points to lead by three approaching the break before Darren Gallagher converted a free with the last score of the first half.  Christie accepted that going 22 minutes without a score was a poor return from his side in that period.

“When we look back at the video, we will be able to pick out certain things but you have to give credit to Tipperary for the way they came back into the game.

“In the last ten minutes of the first half, we were wasteful with the ball, we gave possession away very easily, there were sloppy hand passes and the ball going to ground, things that bring the opposition back into the game and it was all very disappointing.”

On five occasions in the second half, Longford got to within a point of Tipperary but just could not find the equaliser. Christie stated that while Tipp found scoring much easier, Longford found it a struggle despite playing with the wind on the changeover. 

“Tipp were much more effective with converting their attacks as they always got a free or fired a shot off while we had to work extremely hard for our scores, even though we were playing with the wind.

 “Their long kick outs caused us problems where they won the ball and just seemed to tear up the pitch but you have to give them credit for that.”

Next up for Longford is a trip to face Waterford in Dungarvan on Saturday week and after their opening two defeats it will be an ideal opportunity for Longford to get their first win in the current league campaign. 

Longford are depending on other results going their way to reignite their promotion prospects but Christie just wants to focus on his team’s own performance against Waterford and the areas of improvement that need working on in the meantime.

“We just have to focus on what things we need to correct ourselves and just concentrate on winning that next game away to Waterford, which is what we can control, not how other teams perform in their games. 

“We have a lot of managing to do in the meantime. We have to keep an eye on the college players and give them a break, we have squad players that have been on the bench who need to get minutes on the field, and then we have older players whose game time has to be managed as well. 

“We have injuries to Andrew Farrell and just last week to Iarla  O’Sullivan and they are huge losses to the squad. We  hope that they get back eventually but that is the nature of the game and we just have to deal with that.”