Larkin: ‘We’re the team to beat’

Content but unconvinced, might be one possible summary of the mood of Tooreen manager Ray Larkin after his side’s 1-17 to 1-12 win over Four Roads in Dr Hyde Park on Sunday.

The four-in-a-row Mayo champions bounced back well from the concession of an early goal while he was very happy with his side’s defensive display, though the disjointed nature of the contest and a couple of key injuries put a bit of a downer on the five-point win.

“We have plenty of experience in the team, the game’s not going to be won in the first 15 or 20 minutes so while you don’t want to give up a bad start, it was never going to cause us to go away from our plan,” Larkin told the Western People.

“Their player stuck the goal well but we bounced back with a couple of points to level it up. It was unfortunate that we lost Daniel Huane and Liam Lavin in the first-half, that was two big losses but in fairness to the lads that came in, they made an awful difference and were a big help to the cause.

“All week we were looking forward to the game and getting out here, we knew the pitch was very good and we were looking forward to it. But it was very stop-start, plenty of hard hits and plenty of frees, and for the whole game it didn’t feel like it got going. In fairness to Four Roads, they put it up to us, they’re a decent team and we knew coming down here that it was a big challenge”.

Tooreen’s greater ability to control the ball and work it from one end of the field to the other proved crucial in a contest where both sides had an extra man in their own full-back-line.

“We’ve done a lot of work on them for the last week, we knew they’d play with a sweeper and the biggest thing was not to make a hero out of him,” Larkin said.

“Hit the ball into the corners and down the line, keep away from the man in the middle. We seemed to work it, we tracked back as well a good bit, and in fairness to the forwards, they worked really hard, their attitude was excellent.

“We took our foot off the throttle a small bit (towards the end),” he continued.

“Four Roads had to go for it, they had nothing to lose, and there was a decent breeze here as well. Any time you play a game you’ll always find something to work on and we’ll work on that during the week, that we didn’t finish the game out as we would have liked.” 

Notwithstanding the injuries however, this is a group that knows where the bar is in order to progress at provincial level, and Larkin is content that while St Gabriel’s will pose a threat on Saturday week, his squad is exactly where they need to be at this stage of the season.

“St Gabriel’s are a fine team, they had a good win there last weekend so from this week now we’ll have to start making plans. We’ll have a couple of sore bodies there after today, but we’ll go back again to training on Wednesday night and start getting ready.

“But I think we’re in a good place. Every year you hope to bring in new players to freshen it up a small bit and we’ve three minors in there, we’ve John Cassidy back from Australia, so we’re the team that needs to be beat. We’re the marker and every day we have to go out knowing that,” he concluded.