Murray believes tough battle will stand to The Downs
GAA: Match Reaction
Johnny Murray believes being forced to come through extra-time in last Saturday's victory over Athlone will stand to The Downs as they prepare for their upcoming Westmeath SFC semi-final.
Murray reckons that extra-time should be worth a few training sessions to his team.
“We have a lot of lads coming back from injury and lads coming back from America. Niall (Mitchell) hasn’t played much football in the last two years, he came very good for us at the end,” said The Downs manager.
“I'm very happy to get through. It's great to get extra-time and we needed that. Being a dual club, we can't really play challenge matches,” continued Murray, adding that it has been difficult to achieve continuity in terms of team selection.
The Downs’ greater capacity ability to create goal chances was pivotal to the outcome against Athlone, with their second green flag swinging the game.
"Mattie (Cunningham) had missed two chances but he showed the workrate to turn the ball over and to set up the goal (scored by Mitchell) that probably sealed the game for us,” said Murray.
"The workrate I was delighted with and the bit of bite is back in us, I hope. Luke (Loughlin) is not going as well as he can yet, but it will come.”
Despite kicking several wides, Loughlin still scored six points and when that tally was raised, Murray remarked: "There's nothing wrong with that any day of the week; you’d take that.”
Murray agreed that Athlone asked his side plenty of questions, especially in the second half.
"We knew Athlone would be very well organised. I know Eoin (Jordan) and Johnny (Egan) and they are great lads. They took on a team that probably nobody wanted at the time, and they are very young men. We got it hard to break them down. All credit to Athlone; it was a great game for us and they put it up to us,” he said.
Last year’s finalists, Coralstown/Kinnegad now lie in wait in the semi-finals and they are familiar foes for The Downs.
"They are very well set up defensively. They are a good team. They will always find a bit extra against us, their neighbours,” said Murray.
“We'll prepare for that battle and hopefully we can keep lads fresh and keep the momentum going. At this stage they are not going to get any fitter, but hopefully they can keep that bit of freshness. You don’t want to overload them which can be difficult to avoid as a dual team.
“Darragh Egerton was togged today but he’s a bit away yet. You can't expect lads to perform when they haven’t played all year, especially at this stage of the competition when it's high tempo stuff."