Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 4:47pm

Selection difficulties for O'Brien

by Fergal Lynch

Meath manager Eamonn O'Brien.
Pic by==: 97

It doesn't matter whether you are the coach of a club juvenile team or a senior inter-county side aspiring for national glory, there are obstacles in the way of training that can pose problems.

That has certainly been the case for Meath manager Eamonn O'Brien since his side slumped to a disappointing 0-8 to 0-12 defeat away to Down in the second round of NFL Div 2 a couple of weeks ago.

However, O'Brien acknowledges that the u-21 Leinster FC is of vital importance to the county and he has had several of his senior stars away from training to prepare with Colm O'Rourke's panel ahead of next Saturday's Leinster u-21 FC quarter-final clash with Westmeath in Mullingar.

O'Brien has also had to contend with Sigerson Cup demands as well as injuries to key figures. Add in the recent cold snap that forced the postponement of a round of A FL games and also disrupted some outdoor training plans and it is easy to see why a manager can get frustrated.

O'Brien is not the type of man who gets easily frustrated and while he admits that training has been fractured since the Down game, he confirmed that the players available to him have worked hard to right some of the wrongs that appeared during the game in Newry.

"We haven't been able to do too much since the Down game other than a bit of training. With lads away playing and training with the u-21 and others involved with the Sigerson Cup it has been very disruptive, I accept that the u-21 has priority at the moment, " said the manager.

"We looked at the problems from the Down game and it is going to take a good bit of work to correct those errors. The lads are working hard with the players and hopefully we can show some dividends.

"We would hope that the missed opportunities against Down was just something that happened on the night. It would be worse if we weren't creating chances. We are never going to convert 100 per cent of our chances, but we would like to be taking a few more of the chances that we are creating.

"We only took three points in the second-half against Down although we created up to 1-9, if we had managed another two or three points we would have set up a grandstand finish and who knows what way the result would have gone.

"Not taking our chances wasn't the only problems we had against Down. They played very well on the night and made it difficult for us and put us under pressure, but when you look at it from our perspective it is our missed chances that we are looking at," said the manager.

During the early days of his tenure as Meath boss last year O'Brien was stricken with injuries and absentees, but so far this year he has been able to field stronger teams. However, with the u-21 game on the cards for Saturday he is likely to be without a few players.

"We won't be using our u-21 players on Saturday evening against Westmeath. The only one we might have to use is Patrick O'Rourke, just as we did last year. Brendan Murphy is still injured, so Patrick might have to play two games, but sometimes being a goalkeeper isn't as physically demanding as being an outfield player," said O'Brien.

"We will have Brian Meade back from suspension. Hopefully we can get more game-time into Anthony Moyles and we also have Brian Farrell back in contention. Caoimhin King came back to training last week and Joe Sheridan is now fully recovered and is available. It was a risk bringing Joe on against Down, but he came through it okay and he is now fully fit.

"Mickey Burke, Cormac McGuinness and Jamie Queeney are also carrying knocks and they could be doubts for the game, but we will go into the game in confident mood. From our point of view we want to maintain our interest in promotion and Westmeath will be hoping not to slip further into relegation trouble," concluded the manager.

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