Opening proceedings last weekend in the Carlow Senior Football Championship was the tie between Bagenalstown Gaels and Ballinabranna.
Ballinabranna needed to bounce against after a severe loss to Tinryland in the opening round, while Bagenalstown had drawn with Eire Og. It was a close-knit affair with Bagenalstown coming out four-point victors in the end. We caught up with Ballinabranna manager Rory Hurley a day after the game, to get his perspective on the night proceedings and being up against it in the senior championship with a relegation final possibly looming;
“Our backs are to the wall alright. We did have chances, we scored three from eleven chances, and we had a right good goal chance also, we just did not take them.”
“We went for it. In the first round, it was hard the way Tinryland set up their stall, they have a lot of lads back, and it is hard to go fast-paced at them. Bagenalstown left open spaces for us, so we did go at them.”
“David Cox got a great goal, he is a great young footballer. if he stays going senior level, a lot of people will know about him. He is under the radar and got a great goal. We had loads of other chances and we just misfired, same thing happened against Bagenalstown last year as well.”
Related: Tinryland coach Stephen O’Meara responds to comments about his side being too defensive
Hurley was positive about the certain developments within the club but admitted there does seem to be an issue with keeping hold of players;
“There is a post covid problem. We are all struggling with weddings and stags. The likes of Eire Og, a fantastic club, they have lost so many lads, but they had quality lads from the intermediate to replace them. While I suppose for ourselves, we are missing a lot of lads, as a country club, you just don’t have the numbers to replace them.”
“We have to put in a good performance against Eire Og now and try to stay up senior. I think we are above the intermediate standard, we are just not showing at the senior level that we are a senior club.”
Listen back to the interview, along with more Carlow Senior Football post-match reactions below on Scoreline Extra:
