Buckley: 'One point from four games is a poor return'

St. Patrick’s Athletic boss Liam Buckley admitted his side’s start to the 2017 Premier Division season has been disappointing following a third defeat in four games with Monday’s 2-1 loss at home to Finn Harps.

His side took an early lead after just three minutes when Graham Kelly punished Harps defender Johnny Bonner’s loose touch on the edge of his own penalty area. However, first-half goals from Sean Houston and Ciaran O’Connor gave Ollie Horgan’s side a much-deserved first victory of the campaign.

St. Pat’s now sit in tenth place with one point from a possible twelve after earlier defeats against Drogheda United and Bray Wanderers on the opening night of the season.

Their manager noted that while his side had done enough in the game on Monday to warrant a draw, that his newly assembled squad of players had not gelled well enough as a collective group to deserve anything more.

“I think we deserved something out of the game bearing in mind the way it went”, he said. “That said we need improvement from where we are at. I would say we were marginally better than they were, from a play perspective, but ultimately you have to get your chances.

"We are still struggling in finding our ways and our routes and our patterns of play at the minute. So we do need to improve. We have to work harder and make sure of what we are doing, because it is still a little bit off-the-cuff.”

The Inchicore club finished outside a European place for the first time in five years last season in seventh, with his side lingering further down the Premier Division each season from their 2013 league success.

Key members of that squad departing over the course of the last three years means just Ian Bermingham, Conan Byrne and striker Christy Fagan remain, with captain Ger O’Brien now taking a place alongside Buckley in the dugout as Assistant Manager.

“I've been there at both ends”, said the manager, “when you're winning you can't see yourself losing, and when you're losing it's very difficult to see yourself winning. That said there's just four games gone.

“We have got quite a few new lads in — we're trying to bed them in and fit them in. We're trying to get a style about our play, obviously it's not up to speed as of yet so we've still got a bit of work to do, that's for sure.

"Individually we have a lot of top quality players but collectively we are just average. Last week I thought we did enough to win the game in Sligo. That said, tonight a draw probably would have been a fair result.

"I think the players are all wanting to do right — it's just that we are not doing it well together. We need to get a better balance in the game and we will have a look at the bigger picture shape-wise. Because from looking at tonight it just wasn't good enough. We can't afford to go on playing like that.”

His side travel north to face champions Dundalk on Saturday evening still in search of a first win of the new season. Stephen Kenny’s side suffered their first defeat of the season on Monday night, falling 3-1 to Kenny Shiels’ unbeaten Derry City.

When asked about the state of concern in the club at the prospect of relegation to the First Division, Buckley maintained that he was not paying attention to league standings at the moment.

He said: “It's not a case of being worried, we just have to get it better. From a concern point of view I just want to get us playing better. If we play better we'll get points, that's for sure.

“I feel we've enough in the dressing room to get points, we just need to get our performance better. Whether it's changing the style or the way we play, we'll have a look at that over the next few games because it's gone four games now and it's still not right.

"I'm just looking at the next match, I'm not looking at the table per se in terms of a relegation point of view and I'm not looking at the table from a European-spot point of view. I just want to get our team playing better.”