Kenny hits back at Fenlon's comments
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The press room found two managers poles apart in terms of their post-match reaction. A buoyant Stephen Kenny was in a relaxed and conversational mood and used the win as a platform to hit back at Pat Fenlon’s dismissive attitude towards his side’s championship credentials.
"Pat Fenlon was a bit disrespectful to Derry saying, ‘We finished 27 points ahead of them last year, I don’t care how they do’. At the time Derry had finished seventh the previous season under his (Fenlon's) managership and he didn’t mention that and that the club had to sell it’s best players, Niall McGinn and Pat McCourt.”
Adding: “We had to sell a lot of players to count the cost of not qualifying for Europe that season and for money that they spent”, before specifying, “You probably had a situation where one player was probably on a contract of about a hundred thousand and he only played one game, The club couldn’t live with that sort of situation.”
Before adding a parting shot that some clubs are run by “investors that come in and invest” where as with Derry ”The community get behind the club as a focal point of the community. So I think Derry wouldn’t be able to sustain that kind of period, they paid the price because they couldn’t get in to Europe. "
Home manager Jeff Kenna, however, was completely at a loss when asked to explain why his side underperformed so badly, a display he decried as “abysmal”.
“It was hard to stomach; it was more than a fair reflection on the game. First half they were absolutely excellent. In fact they could have scored more than three. We were abysmal. We didn’t get any better really in the second half. They went down to ten men and still passed us off the park.”
“They (Pat's players) had the information that they needed, they looked like there was no desire, we didn’t work hard enough. We were outfought. We didn’t pick up any second balls. We didn’t pass it to each other. We were awful. We looked like a team that hadn’t played together at all.”
When asked were his side still in the title hunt Kenna was brutally honest, answering: “After that, absolutely not. Not a chance, no. On tonight’s performance I think we’ll be lucky if we stay up.”
Then adding, when asked if it was a bigger job than he first thought: “Yes. The pressure is on. You have to be winning every week. You’re expected to be challenging for everything. Unfortunately, at the moment, we’re very hit and miss and that’s the problem.”
When quizzed on what he thought St Pat’s fans would make of this season’s home form Kenna was again typically forthright: “Obviously I’m devastated that we concede six in two games at home. A message to the fans would be ‘stick with us’, It’s gonna be a long, difficult season but I certainly won’t stop working, the players won’t stop working and hopefully it won’t be too long before we get it right.”
"Pat Fenlon was a bit disrespectful to Derry saying, ‘We finished 27 points ahead of them last year, I don’t care how they do’. At the time Derry had finished seventh the previous season under his (Fenlon's) managership and he didn’t mention that and that the club had to sell it’s best players, Niall McGinn and Pat McCourt.”
Adding: “We had to sell a lot of players to count the cost of not qualifying for Europe that season and for money that they spent”, before specifying, “You probably had a situation where one player was probably on a contract of about a hundred thousand and he only played one game, The club couldn’t live with that sort of situation.”
Before adding a parting shot that some clubs are run by “investors that come in and invest” where as with Derry ”The community get behind the club as a focal point of the community. So I think Derry wouldn’t be able to sustain that kind of period, they paid the price because they couldn’t get in to Europe. "
Home manager Jeff Kenna, however, was completely at a loss when asked to explain why his side underperformed so badly, a display he decried as “abysmal”.
“It was hard to stomach; it was more than a fair reflection on the game. First half they were absolutely excellent. In fact they could have scored more than three. We were abysmal. We didn’t get any better really in the second half. They went down to ten men and still passed us off the park.”
“They (Pat's players) had the information that they needed, they looked like there was no desire, we didn’t work hard enough. We were outfought. We didn’t pick up any second balls. We didn’t pass it to each other. We were awful. We looked like a team that hadn’t played together at all.”
When asked were his side still in the title hunt Kenna was brutally honest, answering: “After that, absolutely not. Not a chance, no. On tonight’s performance I think we’ll be lucky if we stay up.”
Then adding, when asked if it was a bigger job than he first thought: “Yes. The pressure is on. You have to be winning every week. You’re expected to be challenging for everything. Unfortunately, at the moment, we’re very hit and miss and that’s the problem.”
When quizzed on what he thought St Pat’s fans would make of this season’s home form Kenna was again typically forthright: “Obviously I’m devastated that we concede six in two games at home. A message to the fans would be ‘stick with us’, It’s gonna be a long, difficult season but I certainly won’t stop working, the players won’t stop working and hopefully it won’t be too long before we get it right.”
About Eoin Manning
Eoin Manning has been a part of the extratime.ie reporting team since 2009 and covers the Dublin clubs. Eoin also writes for many of the countries national newspapers and can be contacted at eoinpmanning@gmail.com View Full Profile