AHEAD of this year’s league campaign, new Down ladies football manager Colm Donnelly had targeted a good start, and the team delivered on Sunday when they beat Limerick by 0-14 to 2-6.
This was the ladies’ first winning start to the league in three years. But one win does not make this a successful season, and Colm told the Mourne Observer that there is more work to be done if they are to achieve their ultimate goal of gaining promotion up to Division Two.
“Really what we took away from it was that if we don’t work as a team and have a certain level of intensity, and have the quality in our game that we all agreed on as a management and as players of what we want, then we don’t perform.
“We really got that in the second half but we didn’t get that in the first half.”
Limerick had the better start on Sunday, and led by 1-3 to 0-3 at half time. Roisin Ambrose scored the goal for Limerick while Down’s Eimear Fitzpatrick and Niamh King found the target.
“We weren’t happy with the first half, but we played better in the second half.
“We had a lot of scoring opportunities in the first half which the forwards didn’t utilise. We took the wrong options on the ball.”
In the rest of the article Colm explains why their next opponents Cavan present a different test for Down.