Published: Wednesday, 15th July, 2009 10:41am

REACTION: Carr urges supporters to be patient

by Paul Fitzpatrick

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Cavan manager Tom Carr stated that Breffni supporters are going to have to be 'awfully patient' in their demands for success following Cavan"s defeat to Wicklow last Saturday evening.

Asked what message he would give to disappointed fans after his side"s championship exit, Carr stated that there is a future in this Cavan side and that the road to success would be 'a long process'.

'Well, I mean, I"m not sure if my head is being called for just yet after six months,' he said.

'I haven"t heard that… But that"s fine, I don"t have a problem with that.

'People have their views and opinions. But I think from where Cavan is coming from, they are going to have to be awfully patient. I don"t have the magic touch, nor does any of my management team, it"s purely and utterly a work ethic that"s required.'

The manager was adamant that his side had enough possession to win the match.

'No defeat is easy to swallow. We came here with how high hopes, we"d like to have addressed the last game we played against Antrim, we didn"t do so. We had plenty of possession to do it [but] we couldn"t convert it in the second half. It"s very disappointing for all concerned,' he said.

Carr admitted that he was aware prior to the game of the magnitude of the challenge an in-form Wicklow would present.

'I think you"re coming to a team who are coming off the back of a win and were at home so it was always going to be difficult. Why didn"t we turn it on? I don"t know is the simple answer.

'We did everything in our power to do it but other than that, I don"t know.

'We didn"t play it fast enough, we allowed them to get back and make the tackles and they did work awfully hard as they did against Fermanagh, and credit to them for that.'

Cavan"s lack of physicality was exposed against a stronger Garden outfit whose strength, said Carr, afforded them an advantage in the conditions.

'The evening was horrific,' he said.

'We"re not the most physically-domineering team in the world and you"ll pay for that on a day like today. We did get caught in the tackle and we did let balls go but ultimately we had enough possession, we just didn"t convert it.'

Asked what the solution to Cavan"s poor run could be, Tipperary native Carr claimed that hard work and commitment will be key.

'It"s a case of having to work, there is nothing wrong with Cavan football, the players are going to have to come together and be committed. They are going to have to make a choice to be in a physical condition to compete at the very highest level and that takes a massive, massive mental and physical commitment.'

Veteran Wicklow manager Mick O"Dwyer admitted that he was 'amazed' that his side had it so easy against an out of sorts Cavan.

'I think when we got the goal it settled our team and that was most important. I was amazed because that is a good Cavan team, they are a young team with a lot of good footballers but they"ll come again. We held up the ball well and we worked for one another,' he said.

'Our six backs played exceptionally well today, I think that was the secret of our win.'

Cavan defender Paul Brady, meanwhile, claimed that the bigger picture needs to be looked at.

'It"s very disappointing, but we have to go back to the drawing board and really I think everybody at all levels will have to look at everything and see where is it all going wrong,' said the Mullahoran defender.

'The players, myself included, need to put their hands up and I think Cavan people really need to look at where we"re going as a county.

Wicklow"s goal, claimed Sean Johnston, was the crucial score.

'It was a disappointing result, maybe after the Antrim game we could have said we could have worked harder but I think all the boys did put their shoulder to the wheel and work hard, I think it was just a failure to get some crucial scores at crucial times,' said the corner-forward.

'In fairness, you have to give credit to Wicklow, they played very well. It was poor conditions but it was the same for both teams, they got a slippy enough goal and a goal in a game like that was always going to make a huge difference.

'I think that might have put them four or five points up and even when we got it back to three, it was always difficult to get that back, that goal was still keeping them ahead.

Johnston, who scored 0-12 (0-5 from play) in Cavan"s three championship matches praised what he called the 'true fans' who made the long trek to Aughrim to support the team.

'The fans who came down this evening, I suppose you could call them true fans and it"s very disappointing for them.

You have to give them great credit for travelling down this far, it"s a long spin down on a very wet dreary evening and I"d be very disappointed for those fans, but only those fans,' he stated.