Liam Buckley: We have underachieved this season

St. Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley admitted his side had underachieved greatly this season after steamrolling recently-crowned champions Dundalk 5-2 in their penultimate league game.

Richmond Park was host to an inspired individual display from all of St. Pats’ starting eleven, with an individual tally of two goals and two assists inside the space of 25 minutes capping a tremendous performance from midfielder Conan Byrne.

The 31-year-old forged a devastating partnership with striker Christy Fagan up front for Buckley’s side. Fagan nudged his side into the lead before a double from Byrne was followed by a second assist which saw defender Ian Bermingham rifle his shot into the roof the net to head into the break 4-0 to the good.

Dundalk managed to close the floodgates to some extent in the second period and looked like staging the most unlikely of comebacks when Dean Shiels and 18-year-old striker Michael O’Connor dragged the scoreline back to 4-2.

However a late and great strike from 18-year-old prospect Jonathan Lunney for St. Pats returned the travelling Lilywhite support to shunned silence, inflicting a sixth league defeat on the champions this season.

Speaking afterwards , Buckley highlighted the outstanding level of football which was displayed by two teams filled with young and inexperienced players.

“There was some fantastic football played between both teams. Their goals were good, our goals were good. I’m just delighted we got the win bearing in mind it’s the second last game of the season.

“I have to say, the goals were just brilliant that we scored. The one and two-touch stuff was (excellent). I know Dundalk were in a sort of celebratory mode but our play was outstanding at times.”

Attendance figures for this week rose from a dismal 369 versus Cork City last week to 817 on Tuesday night to welcome the champions to Inchicore. However Buckley maintains he would get rid of midweek fixtures in the League of Ireland entirely for next season.

“It’s ridiculous, I wouldn’t do any midweek matches. I would extend the season out at the back end and start it earlier. I would plan out the games for teams competing in Europe better and try to eradicate these Monday and Tuesday night games.

“Inevitably we played when Man United were playing Liverpool. When you are competing with these teams on TV it’s a distraction for supporters coming out and equally for us.

“If this game was played throughout the summer you would have been looking at 1,500-2,000 people here and it would have been an important game.

“Obviously the gate receipt will be down but the bottom line is that you cannot expect our supporters to be going to two home games in one week, because it is quite costly. We have had 6-8 games over the last few weeks and it is expensive for supporters coming out.”

St. Pats conclude their season at home to Derry City on Friday night. With third spot already secured, the Candystipes will replace their opponents in Europa League qualification next summer.

Asked whether or not he had spent time considering his future at Richmond Park for next season and what changes he would make for 2017, Buckley said:

“I have been speaking to Gareth (Kelleher) about the budget for next season and where and what we will do budget-wise and squad-wise. But it will be all worked out over the next week or two.

“We will look at everything across the board. From fitness levels to organisation to our training to our coaching, to every part of our whole setup. Because ultimately we have failed this year to finish midtable.

“We still have a lot of ability in the dressing room and have probably underachieved, that’s my issue. I want to make sure next year that it’s better.”