Quigley: ‘We have to match Crosserlough’s hunger’

Neil Quigley has been steadily building on his coaching journey for over a decad, but this year has brought him into the thick of Senior Championship football as manager of Lurgan ladies, who hope to retain their county title this Saturday.

Quigley started off training underage teams with home club Lisnaskea Emmets and moved on to Fermanagh development squads. After time away travelling, he dived back into coaching.

“I was ready for the right opportunity to step back in, but I wanted to wait for a team who had the commitment, you know, to match what you're prepared to put in and when I watched a few videos of Lurgan, I knew what they were all about. And it’s like I felt fortunate, to be honest. So that’s how I ended up coming to Lurgan.”

Whatever his expectations were, they have been met - and more.

“Probably exceeded it, really… I remember, for example, we brought a goalkeeping coach up one night, and we were driving home and he couldn’t get over our numbers and the attitude of the girls, they make it so easy because they’re so committed. And if we ask them to do something, they’re great listeners, I definitely have noticed that, better than any men’s team I have been involved in, and they’ll take on board advice. So yeah, exceeded expectations.”

Quigley’s calm approach was tested in the drama of the semi-final free-kick shoot-out but he insists he always had faith in his squad.

“On reflection, I probably was quite calm, I had to try and be calm for the girls. And then I knew, I’d read it in the rules, so I did have it in the back of my mind. Once we hit the penalty to equalise, I knew, ‘this is kicks now’.

“I was thinking I’m not going to put them under pressure, we probably said we were in bonus territory now. Because we were gone with two minutes to do. So I just said to the girls in the huddle ‘who wants to take one?’ and then you are hoping that your big kickers step up.

“And to be fair, the girls who put the hand up are the girls you would have wanted to. I probably have to give a special mention to Laura Keogan, because she hadn’t had a shot in the game, she wasn’t long on and she sailed it over, no problem.

“And I think we’ve preached about the squad all year, and it just shows, she came off the bench, she had to be patient all year, but she took her chance too so, yeah, you’d be proud of their resilience.”

Last year’s final between Lurgan and Crosserlough was decided by a point, and Quigley expects a similar battle this Saturday.

“Well there was a minimum in it last year, one point, I’ve watched the video back, there’s some serious defending by our side at the end to keep them out. It’s going to take all that again, we know they are laced with quality all over the pitch.

“We just know from a Lurgan point of view that we have to match them for work-rate and hunger. They are going to be seriously hungry after losing last year by a point so that’s probably something we’ve talked about as well. We do feel we have the quality in Lurgan but we have to just make sure that we match that hunger and desire.

“But I’ve no doubt after that test in the semi-final, that the girls are ready. I know they’ll go to the well again if we have to. I know it’s going to be tough. We have a lot of respect, and I felt all year we were going to have to beat Crosserlough to win this championship, and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Quigley also feels that the broader picture of promoting the championship in Cavan is moving in the right direction.

“From talking to people, because I suppose I don’t know what’s went before, I do think they’ve promoted the championship well. And I think the crowds at the championship games have been really good.

“Even talking to the junior and intermediate coaches there, they were at those games. There were big, big crowds, which is good to see.

“But I would be a big believer in ‘if you can’t see, you can’t be’ so I think there’s always room to do more. And probably coming from Fermanagh, like not saying it’s all down to journalists, you need to probably get on to your PROs to be submitting reports. There probably could be more reports in the league and maybe get more games into Breffni.

“We were so delighted to play Lacken here the first day and just that exposure for a young girl in Cavan, club players, not just county, it just gives them something then to be determined, to follow in those footsteps, you know.

“So to summarise it, good work going on, but there’s always room for a bit more.”