Replying To eoinog: "Very fortunate to get a draw. We were rubbish. Strutted around expecting to win but not prepared to put in the work. Keeper was good with his lockouts and caught a brilliant free under the crossbar. Rossa was excellent in defence, Doherty good in midfield and only one forward worthy of a mention and that was Rooney. I imagine Henry will be fuming. It will be a different 15 starting next week"
It's a Sligo starting 15 that has 10/11 of last years team it isn't going to change too much on that experienced team. Roscommon side you drew with also drew with Mayo and Mayo beat Galway by a bit to spare tonight. Galway v Sligo a big one in Tuam next.
Its interesting I said we need to bring the intensity for 60+ mins, and we ended up bringing it for about 5 mins in the 1st half and 5 in the second. Given we were 6-2 up and then 8-6 down I thought it was pretty incredible that we managed to get 9-8 ahead and wrestle back control with that awesome Niland score. The move leading us to it was is what we should mirror the whole game.
To think we played so poorly, had a ref that wasn't kind and still got the draw is noteworthy.
The other thing that always stayed in my mind was last year Kildare lost to Westmeath in the opening round of Leinster by 6pts so maybe something similar here and the bye was probably a factor.
This performance was way below the standard expected, I felt we played into Roscommon's hands for large parts. We moved the ball far too slow, I don't mind switching the ball over and back but a bit of overlaps at speed working in 3s wouldn't go a miss. The last Niland score was players prepared to push through the blanket and quick hands breaking the gainline off the shoulder. Too many played it safe or took risks with no support. It was a very individualistic performance with players trying to win it on their own. We were defensively sound given our set up even though we gave away silly fouls although some very harsh. Our transitions from defence to attack were way below our standards. So many cheap turnovers coming out. I can't imagine the management were happy.
Mayo outplayed Galway yesterday. Galway had a lot of bluster and tried to blow Mayo out of it but once they stayed in touch they kicked on. Galway have to beat us now so that's a huge game next week and we will need to improve massively.
We need to not try to be so careful and play it safe all the time and our energy needs to be much higher. Cant afford the type of isolation each player had yesterday. Hopefully the rust is out of our game and we get a big response from this wake up call.
Roscommon deserved their draw even if it was handed to them.
When I seen "insanely strong" team written on here I had to shake my head.
We were very poor but I actually think we started very well. I am a little concerned about our lack of penetration and lack of creating real goal scoring opportunities. Ross at corner back gets on a serious amount of ball but is sloppy with it. Luke Marren seems to have gone off the boyle which is disappointing. I was expecting a much more assured performance but at least we didnt lose.