Concession of goals proves costly for out of sorts Royals

Summerhill’s Mary Kate Lynch and her fellow defenders had a tough day at the office on Saturday trying to contain a very talented set of Armagh forwards. The former full-back, now centre-back, spoke to the press, including the Meath Chronicle's TOM GANNON following the defeat and explained where she believed the game was lost.

"We didn’t have the greatest of starts to the game. The first 10 minutes did not go according to plan. We couldn’t really get back into it. Then in the second half, we were playing into a strong breeze. When you have that against you and then you start to slip a bit behind it is very hard to get back into the game. Disappointing result at the end of the day.”

Lynch admitted that at times Meath’s defence was very open. She explained how this contributed to allowing Armagh to get the two goals which were a massive influence on how the game played out.

“As the saying goes, goals win games. We know from the previous few games where we got goals under our belt, how hard it was for other teams to come back at us. At times we were a bit open and we were not getting bodies back in time. That’s where their goals came from and it is always hard to come back when the opposition get themselves in front like Armagh did today.”

Lynch knew the magnitude of Sunday’s game and was also aware of the tough task that Armagh were going to pose to them. Despite the defeat though Lynch is confident that there is still a lot for Meath to play for in this league campaign and that she and her teammates can bounce back from this result.

"We were three from three coming into today. We knew coming up against Armagh that we were going to be facing a tough side. Today was a big game. Whoever won was going to go top of the table.

"It hasn’t gone away from us though. We still have three games left. You never know what other results might throw up. I think it is still there for us. It is still there for most of the teams at this point in time. We will have to just reassess, see where the errors were and kick on from there.”

Finally, Lynch conceded that she and her fellow defenders really struggled to contain some of Armagh’s talented players on the day.

“It wasn’t easy keeping the Armagh forwards quiet there today. When you press up, you have a job to get back. When they are kicking the ball into the likes of the talented Aimee Mackin and Kelly Mallon is is tough. Lauren McConville caused us some issues with her runs off the shoulder. It was a difficult task. We did the best we could and it just wasn’t enough today. It's always a tough day when you come out with a loss but that’s the nature of the game,” concluded the Summerhill star.

Meath manager Shane McCormack was disappointed in his team's performance after the heavy defeat to Armagh. McCormack believed that his players went away from the game plan that he set out.

“We are very disappointed. We are disappointed with our own performance. The last three games we played we stuck to a game plan. We kind of went away from the game plan today. Armagh got a run at us and they continued that throughout the game.”

McCormack also spoke about how his player's failure to take advantage of the wind being at their backs was a contributing factor in the defeat.

“There was a strong wind in the first half and it was at our backs. I know the wind does not win games but when you then go down by four points after 10 minutes, it is hard to get that back. They got two goals and goals win games. We were always going to be under pressure after that. They kept the pressure on us. It was very hard to get it back.”

Ratoath star and Meath vice-captain Katie Newe picked up a bad head injury in the first half as a result of a clash of heads with Armagh’s Louise Kenny. McCormack complimented Newe and hopes that she will be back to full fitness as soon as possible.

“Katie got a bad bang on the head in the first half. Katie is a fantastic player and it's always tough when a good player like that gets injured. Hopefully, she will be okay. She is gone off in the ambulance now and hopefully, she will be alright.”

McCormack admits that Meath have some tough challenges ahead of them in the remaining games of the league. McCormack believes that if his team continue to perform like they did today, that they would find it very difficult in the last couple of games.

“We have to just pick ourselves up and go again. We have a couple of tough games ahead of us with Galway, Kerry and Cork. They are excellent teams. If we perform like we did today against those teams we will be on the back foot very quickly. We have to work extremely hard for the next couple of weeks.”

Meath will play their final two games of the league at home and McCormack hopes that his team can make more use of that advantage than they did on Sunday.

“The home advantage in those last two games will be very important. We had home advantage today and we didn’t use it. To be fair there was a fantastic crowd here today. The girls owe it to themselves to put in big performances in the remaining games. We have to work hard, that’s all we can do now,” concluded the manager.