Gaffney disappointed not to secure victory over Westmeath

Ratoath’s Amy Gaffney put in a super performance and was player of the match in Meath’s National Camogie League Div 2A draw with Westmeath at Trim on Saturday, writes TOM GANNON.

After the thrilling contest Gaffney was keen to express how there were a few unknown factors at play coming into the game given the fact that there is new management in place and that the panel has got a rather fresh look about it.

“We were coming into this game still with a few unknowns. We have a very new panel and obviously, there is a new management team in place there. There were two girls making their first starts for the team there today as well. Jorja Keogh and Emma Hanafin, who both played very well. So with all that in mind, today was about doing the simple things right and limiting Westmeath’s ability to score.”

Despite getting a result from the game, Gaffney was convinced that Meath left the win behind them. The Ratoath player believes that Meath were the better team on the day and is disappointed to not get the victory.

Having said that Gaffney was happy with her and her teammate's resilience at the end to secure the point.

“We were up by one point at half-time, we were relativity happy with the way we were playing. The plan for the second half was to try and extend that lead. We knew we were the better team. We are probably a bit disappointed to be walking away from this with only a draw. At the same time, in the closing stages, we did well there to get the draw.”

Gaffney admitted that Meath were undisciplined and complacent at times when they had a nice lead built up over Westmeath. Gaffney says that there are a number of areas that Meath can improve upon going forward. One of those areas that can be improved upon is the level of trust on the field within this relatively new panel of players.

“We did have a nice cushion there on a couple of occasions throughout the game and I think maybe our discipline let us down at times. We gave away a few silly fouls, but I suppose they did the same," she said.

"Going forward we do have to look at what we can do better in those scenarios. We probably could be a bit quicker off the mark when the ball is coming out of defence. We have to build up that confidence in ourselves.

"If we hit a ball down the line, we need to have that trust that whoever is receiving the ball will get there first. We are probably lacking a bit of that belief at the moment. So there is that and a couple of other things that we probably need to work on in training. Again though, we are a new panel so there was always going to be things like that at this stage but it’s just about ironing out them issues now.”

Gaffney says that the opening two games have given Meath a lot of confidence going forward for the rest of the league. She is hopeful that she and Meath can give a really good account of themselves in Div 2A. At this stage, though Meath are taking each game as it comes and all focus now turns to the Derry clash in two weeks.

“We have certainly gained some confidence from the opening two games and we probably do have an ambition to do well in the league. We have a week off now and then we face off against Derry. Obviously, they beat us in the All-Ireland final last year. All we can do now is focus on that game. We just have to take this one game at a time and see where it leads.”