Cousins keen to focus on the positives despite home defeat to Cork

Longford Town started the weekend sitting in sixth place in the league table, but a visit from a Cork City side with title-aspirations saw Tony Cousins’ men concede four for the first time this season and slip into the bottom half of the division.

As the torrential rain poured down outside, Extratime.ie caught up with the Longford Town boss who first lamented the absence of some key players.

“I think if you’ve any chance these teams in relation to where we’re coming from having been promoted, you need to have your strongest team out. Tonight, missing the players we’re missing, it was too much for us.

“Pat had a little operation yesterday that we thought was a little minor one; just on his throat. Unfortunately he had a reaction to it and he had to pull out this morning.

“Obviously we’ve missed Pat Flynn over the last six or seven weeks but he was back running this week so that’s another big plus for us. Then Mark Rossiter struggled all week and didn’t train. He was very stiff. The thing is, if he wasn’t fully fit then I didn’t believe it was a chance worth taking, particularly with the games that we have coming up.”

Despite the absentees, the home side played some good football and were not too troubled until John Caulfield’s men showed their ruthless side by scoring from two corners in a five minute spell. Having started the game well, we asked the former Shamrock Rovers’ striker if he was disappointed at conceding twice from set pieces.

“Definitely I think, but as long as I’ve been around and been involved in the League of Ireland, you’ve got to defend set pieces and we didn’t defend. We were two down because of two set pieces and you just can’t do that in this league.

“As you said, there wasn’t much in it up to that. We probably had one or two better chances with Mark Salmon’s header and we’d another chance, but you’ve got to defend.

“In saying that we did look vulnerable at times; particularly in the second half. That’s just where we’re at. We’d players playing tonight, and if you look at the team, there are some players who have never played at this level before. The reason why I brought in experienced players last year was to get promoted and to have them when we went up. Unfortunately when we don’t have them then it’s a struggle for us.”

Having conceded the first two from set pieces, there was some doubt in the stadium over whether the other two goals were onside. While Cousins admitted to wondering the same, he was quick to rule out any sense of injustice.

“I felt that they were offside. I felt the third one was two yards offside and I felt that there was a handball leading to the fourth.

“But come here, I’d be nit-picking. The way it is; we didn’t deserve to win the game. The players never stopped going. They never do. They always give me everything but we just weren’t good enough against a very strong side. I think they had four or five out tonight and the four or five that came in were as good as the four or five that went out. That’s the reality of it.

“The most important thing for us is that we want to be in this division next year and the next two games are cup finals for us; Drogheda and Derry. That’s going to define our season, not the games against the top three or four. If we lose them, it’s about bouncing back and making sure you’re right for these games coming up.”

Four goals down against a hungry Cork side, and the Longford players could have been forgiven to switching off but to their credit they battled to the final whistle. Their endeavour resulted in what was only a consolation goal as Dean Kelly scored what was the goal of the game, a cracker from 25 yards, deep into time added on.

Once again, the Longford Town boss was quick to praise the spirit of his team and their ‘never-say-die’ attitude.

“I keep saying it every week that there’s a great group of lads in there. That’s one thing about them, they will never stop going. That’s why we are in the position we are. We’re sixth in the league for a team that’s just been promoted. We’ve just got to make sure that over the next two weeks that we get two positive results.

“We’re still in sixth place and we’re in the next round of the cup so I’ve just got to make sure that there’s a lot of positivity around the place. You’ve got to be careful and I certainly wouldn’t be listening to anybody else. Our focus isn’t going to change. The most important thing is that we are in this league next year and then as well as that it is easier to bring in better quality than on top of that because you have proven that you can stay in the league.”