IT WAS HARD to find a more shell shocked Gaelic football manager in the country yesterday than Cork’s Peadar Healy.
A month ago he began his first league campaign as Cork boss with a superb and convincing win over Mayo.
Yesterday his team welcomed another Connacht side to Páirc Uí Rinn but got walloped by Roscommon. They conceded 4-25 and were 18 points behind at the final whistle.
The poor performance was not one Healy had forecast.
“I thought even this morning we were in good form to be honest with you. It’s unacceptable. If you’d said this morning we’d score 3-10, you’d say we’ve a chance of winning this game.
“We were beaten by double scores. It was a great performance by them but it’s a bad result for us and it’s a bad result for Cork football.
It’s a long time since Cork were beaten like that at home.
As bad as Cork were, their opponents yesterday were superb. Healy had no qualms accepting that.
“Give credit to Roscommon, they were first to every ball. They were in front of our men, in front of our backs.
“We couldn’t seem to be able to pick up runners, we couldn’t seem to be able to win the breaks, we couldn’t win our own kickouts.
We had big problems all over the pitch. Once they got on top and had a bit of momentum, we couldn’t seem to stay with them.
“They were very good and exceptionally fit. I’d love to see their wides stat, it was phenomenal.”
Cork don’t have much time to lick their wounds.
They need to bounce back quickly given the scale of the challenge ahead of them next Saturday night, the reigning All-Ireland and league champions Dublin await in Croke Park.
“We’ll have to review everything,” outlined Healy.
“I just feel leaving the pitch there today that there’s an awful lot of work to be done.
“We’d be hoping to turn the tide around. We’re after three games now in the league, two bad results and a good result.
“We just need to go back to basics now, that’s the way I see it. We the management have to come up with answers and find answers fairly fast and fairly soon.”
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