Cathal Murray impressed by Ardee’s ability to grind out results

It was supposed to be a cakewalk. Ardee against the Longford Champions, on their home patch, surely, there can only be one winner?

While the final scoreline, where the men in Blue won by nine points, might suggest it was a simple assignment, in reality this clash with Colmcille proved to be a real struggle. Cathal Murray’s side had to did deep into the well to advance.

“It was a very physical game, there was a lot of sore bodies there after the match” stressed the St Marys boss when speaking to The Democrat shortly after the final whistle.

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“We knew it going to be a battle and we had seen videos of them and how defensive they were. And as much as they were very much defensive, they still caused us problems going forward.

“We gave away some frees that sort of threw them back on us again, as opposed to keeping the scoreboard ticking over. We had chances to create a gap between us and them and didn’t take them. That meant the final few minutes were much tighter that I wanted them to be.”

With a long Leinster campaign the next target for Ardee, the Down native was in a reflective mood as he spoke about his first year at the helm.

While there is plenty for his side to work on in the coming weeks, ahead of their next provincial tie against Westmeath champions The Downs, Murray was keen to stress their ability to get over the line under his tutelage.

“It is a learning experience for these lads, as for the early part of the championship we had a few handier games. It was gutsy today and that is what impresses me. You can go back to the Martins game, the drawn final, we have come from behind.

“This is only my first year here, but in previous experiences would they have been able to get over the line or would they have lost? Would they be able to dig in when it mattered?

“Against these lads we were expected to win this game handy and that was the challenge for us, to be able to put in a performance. As much as we did do that at times, the consistency wasn’t there.

“But at the same time the guts and ability to grind out results is clearly something that will stand by them moving forward.”