'There can be no excuses for that performance'- Laois' Justin McNulty following Leitrim loss

Laois football manager Justin McNulty wasn’t impressed with his side’s performance after their one-point loss to Leitrim on Saturday.

McNulty’s men held a four-point lead at half time but Leitrim came out swinging in the second half and came out on top by the finest of margins.

Speaking after the game McNulty said he was “Embarrased.”

“Embarrassed by the performance, we just weren’t good enough. It was a one point defeat and we could have stolen a draw at the death, but we didn’t deserve it and they had five or six glorious guilt edge goal chances they missed.

“The scoreline flatters us big time and it’s a very disappointing dressing room and we know that’s not good enough. It’s not going to be good enough going forward and we have to reset and fix things.

“We’ve agreed that we’re going to have a long, hard look at ourselves and work to address what we saw out there as being a substandard performance.”

Laois looked good at times in the first half despite allowing Leitrim chances, but in the second half they struggled with the pressure applied by the visitors.

McNulty said, “We weren’t effective in the session, we didn’t show enough energy. We coughed up possession cheaply and it just wasn’t good enough. We need to find out why that was and address it, and ultimately the buck stops here.

“The team were dead, they didn’t show any liveliness or life in the performance. That’s not good enough and it has to be addressed and that comes down to me.”

Leitrim had to win to stay in contention for promotion, whereas a win wasn’t necessary for Laois, but McNulty said that’s no excuse and shouldered some of the blame himself.

He said, “There can be no excuses for that performance, it’s not acceptable. We need to figure out what it was, we don’t know now but ultimately I’m the manager and I’ve got to take full responsibility for my team when it dips in performance. Hands up, I’ll figure out what it was and address it for the next day.”

Laois still sit atop Division 4, though McNulty sees it somewhat fortuitously and says his side will have to be on their game against bottom side Waterford this weekend to avoid any upsets.

He said, “There’s a number of games which could’ve gone either way, so we’re fortunate to be on 10 points and Leitrim will feel that they could be on 10 points just as easily.

“The reality is we’ve got to learn like we lost and we did lose so we’ve got to learn a lot from today’s performance and figure out how to put things right for Waterford.

“They’ve been coming good and proving it throughout the league and obviously they drew with Tipperary so they’ll be no light touch. We’ll have to be on our game big time to get a performance next weekend.”