“See yah in 13 days” Stephen Rochford said straight up after the full time whistle in Croke Park. While many a manager would be thrilled to see his side come from five behind at half time after conceding two first half own-goals, and then come from three behind with normal time up and live to fight another day, Rochford wanted more. The Crossmolina man wants and expects more from his team.
His initial reaction to what he’d just seen was to say, “Look we’ll be very disappointed with a number of aspects of the game. I felt we contributed enough to the concession of the two goals, even if some people feel they were unlucky but you make your own luck. We know there’s still serious scope for us to improve on and we’ll look forward to being back her in 13 days”
It’s not just a case of the great escape will do, there’s plenty more work to be done over the next two weeks as far as he’s concerned before these sides tussle for the fourth time in the championship in 13 months on Saturday week. “I’m not down hearted, but the reality is were at half time now in the All Ireland final a lot done a lot more to do.”
While he was happy to still be there, he’s looking for a big improvement and wasn’t shy in saying so after. “It’s half time, thats maybe a story that will run in two weeks time at this moment in time we’re still in the fight, it doesn’t change out thought process, we had 12 to 13 turnovers in the first half is that a good game? We’ve things to improve on and that’s what we’ll be doing simple as that.
There was no-one feeling sorry for themselves about how Dublin got their goals, it’s about dusting yourself down and getting on with it again he added. “You don’t feel sorry for yourself either that’s one thing, we’d said we weren’t going to have regrets about certain things that would happen during the course of the year or the course of the game, some things go with yah, some things go against yah. For us, it’s half time. See yah in two weeks.” And everyone will be waiting for those two weeks to come around again as quick as they can.
