Kildare camogie manager Mike Wall reacts to Roscommon loss

Kildare manager Mike Wall wasn’t unduly concerned about his team’s placing at the end of three games in this division. Instead, his disappointment was centred around the missed opportunity to put a win on the board. 

“It was a narrow defeat last week and a narrow defeat this week, and all is not lost,” Wall told the Leinster Leader after Saturday’s game in Roscommon. 

“We’re still in the league, we’ve to go to Armagh next week and try to get something, but we have to drive and expect more out of ourselves.

“It [losing] is not significant because we’re going to end up in a semi-final anyway, but the only thing is, winning is a habit, and so is losing. That’s two tight games where our own naivety and mistakes cost us. So if we can stomp that out, I wouldn’t fear a semi-final, regardless of who we play. But we have to start learning how to win a game. And that’s maybe not down to the players, it’s down to us as management as well”.

While the Kilkenny native was keen to pay tribute to Roscommon’s performance and the qualities of the home side, he also felt that his own players were in a position to win this game. 

“We were the authors of our own downfall to be honest” he said. 

“We went in seven points ahead at half-time but it wasn’t seven points, it was three scores. We left too many scores behind us in the first half, taking silly shots on goal when we should have been tapping the ball over the bar to keep the scoreboard moving. 

“Then Roscommon came at us and we couldn’t get a foothold, we made a lot of mistakes out there and in a close game like that, everything counts. It really came down to mistakes, we made more than Roscommon”.

At this time of year, many managers who are in they early days of a rebuilding project would demand patience and forbearance. To Wall’s credit, he doesn’t run from expectation, he craves it, for himself and for the players. 

“We are a new team and we’re building, but I don’t want to use that as a crutch” he insisted.

“We’re not trying to look for excuses. We’re trying to hold ourselves accountable, management as well. I’m not knocking anyone, the effort was there, but there were times when that little bit of composure was missing, particularly in the second half when we started to panic and hit aimless balls. 

“We had seven debutants last week against Laois and we had a couple more today so we’re young and we’re driving. The games we’ve played so far were against teams a tier or two above us, to try and get up to the pace of the type of game we want to play, but it’s now we’d want to be picking up a win or two. We’ll go up to Armagh, we’ll give it a good lash and we’ll see how we get on up there” he concluded.