Kernohan left speechless by defeat
Thursday, 30 October 2008
COLERAINE Coach Richard Kernohan was speechless after Saturday's 13-0 defeat at home by Armagh. His side put in a battling performance but came away with nothing to show for their efforts.
“I was gutted after Saturday," said Richard. "We had roughly 65 or 70% possession and I thought we deserved something from the game.
“The lads were also devastated, the changing room afterwards was a very quiet place and for the first time I had nothing to say to the players except that they had done their best.
“The last few weeks we have played poorly but got the results and yet this week we played well, every man did his bit and yet we got nothing.
“The lads all stuck at it right to the very end, working and fighting for everything.
“The one thing Saturday did was let us see exactly where we are at - Armagh were always going to be a bench mark for us and we aren't too far away.
“City of Derry and Armagh are the two sides that will be fighting it out for promotion and as far as I'm concerned there is very little difference between them and us.
“I know we can beat City of Derry when we get them at home and if we can eliminate a few errors there is no reason we can't run Armagh very close when we play them away.
“They scored their tries when they took their opportunities, when we had a momentary lapse and we paid the price.
“However, the pleasing thing is the guys came back, they didn't let their heads drop, they fought hard. I thought once again Steven Dickey was superb, he was everywhere and even when he broke his nose he refused to come off, he just wouldn't stop!
“There is no doubt we had at least four of five different situations from which we could have scored and if we had got points on the board that would have given the lads additional confidence. I'm not saying it would have changed the outcome of the game but who knows.
“At times I think we were trying too hard and then we made errors at the crucial times. We also tried to do the same things too often. When they weren't working we should have changed things.
“We tried to bash up the forwards and when that didn't work we should have fired the ball out across the field.
“With regards our defence, whenever they were right in there we fought our way back out. We showed a lot of commitment but we have got to be able to finish, there were just too many silly mistakes in their 22. There is no doubt they were hard to break down but crucial mistakes denied us points.
“What we have learned is that they are beatable but we need to forget about it and move on. We play Limavady on Saturday and it won't be easy. It's a local derby and those games are never pretty. We are waiting on the fitness of four or five players before then. In fact half the pack have injuries to heads, necks and shoulders, so Saturday will be a test of what sort of squad we are. The question is can we pick ourselves up and show character to come back from this defeat?"
