Manager 'very happy' with performance
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Tuesday March 02 2010
KEVIN RYAN'S demeanour as he lies against the perimeter wall of Dr Cullen Park is not much different to his gait in the dressing room underneath the stand in Casement Park, Belfast a week earlier.
Even though the two outcomes have been hugely different, Kevin Ryan's reaction is much the same. "Very happy with the performance, I keep emphasising that it is more important to focus on the performance than the result. We were bitterly disappointed that after putting in such an effort in Belfast last week that we came away with nothing and we agreed to put that same effort and more into to-day" stated the team manager.
When we praised his side for their combination and finish the Waterford man revealed. "We have had a chance to do more ball work in training and it is nice to see that work begin to pay off in a match situation. A few of those moves came off early and that helped the confidence levels
"Forget the result, it is important to focus on positives of the performance but as against that I was pleased in our warm-down to hear the lads talk about mistakes and aspects of their game they were anxious to improve. That's good, that means they are thinking of the performance, not just content to celebrate a big win".
A case in point was captain Eddie Coady. "A decent performance" was how he summed things up. "We had some excellent periods in the game but we lost our way for periods too, especially in the second half.
"Any day you out 5-17 on the board you are going to be hard to beat. That was our downfall in Antrim, not getting those scores. Thankfully the radar was working to-day and hopefully it will stay that way for the foreseeable future" declared Coady.
"We are working hard on trying to shift those hurling circles, to progress another couple of steps up the ladder. The performance just didn't happen to-day or last year or the year before, its continuously evolving and please God its onwards an upwards in the future" declares Coady, a dozen seasons on the inter-county go.
"However we have one win out of two league games, nothing to get carried away with yet and Down away in two weeks time is not going to be easy but we are looking forward to it, we want to build on to-day"
