Saints manager Liam Buckley condemns 'ridicuious' fixture list and lack of engagement from the FAI

The Premier Division fixture list has been labelled “ridiculous” and “absolutely stupid” by St Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley.

The Saints boss revealed that his attempts to move their home fixture against Sligo Rovers, to bring some relief to his beleaguered players, fell on deaf ears.

The Saints face a run of eight fixtures in the next four weeks after their 2-2 draw with Bohemians on Friday, beginning with tonight’s trip to table-topping Dundalk.

Buckley expressed his concerns regarding the welfare of players across the league – and the lack of a concrete response from the FAI when their request was turned down.

“It’s absolutely stupid,” Buckley said.

“It’s ridiculous that we have been put in a position here we’ve got a game on Friday, game on Monday [against Dundalk], game on Friday [another Dublin Derby meeting with Shamrock Rovers].

“Then we’ve a week into the following Friday, and then we’ve got five games in 13 days. You would normally have two in two weeks.

“We requested to move a fixture, it was our home game here that called off due to the snow [against Sligo Rovers].

“They rescheduled it, because it’s part of the rules, and I’ve asked could they move it and just been told no.

“It would have suited Sligo to move the game was well, and I only wanted to move it a couple of weeks so that it gives the players some sort of break.

“There’s a fella, Raymond Verheijen, from Holland. He came over and did our Pro Licence with us and he said you need three to four days in relation to getting a full recovery. It’s as ­simple as that.

“It’s really ridiculous, there’s player welfare, health issues in relation to being fit, you won’t be able to run with the same guys every game.

“You can’t do any training, the guys that aren’t playing will do a little bit of training, but they could be used – I just don’t understand it.

“We’ve only got three games in July. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The turning point in the Bohemians tie came when Ryan Brennan was sent off after 52 minutes for a dive in the Bohs box.

Pats were enjoying a pleasant 2-0 lead, courtesy of two goals from Jake Keegan, but the Drogheda native can feel very hard done by to be dismissed according to his boss.

“The sending off was the key one,” Buckley stated.

“He should have never been booked in the first place.

“Their lad has kicked him, he’s just trying to block a ball going forward and he’s been booked, stupidly for that.

“It’s never a booking, and then instead of it being a penalty it’s a free kick out, another booking, and he’s gone, which completely changed the match.

“We were on top in the first half. I thought we passed quite well. Obviously with the second goal, at 2-0, I felt relatively comfortable with where we were at bearing in mind we were playing quite well.

“We’ve got to take the positives out of the first half. The sending off was the key element of the whole game, but we played quite well in the first half.

“We’ve done well in recent weeks in fairness, we just need to make sure we’re better equipped to deal with 10 v 11 further down the line.”