Reaction to Sporting Fingal’s draw with Shels’

Following a scoreless draw in difficult conditions, Shels’ Collie O’Neill and Sporting Fingal’s Peter Hynes shared their views with extratime.ie on the game and Alan Murphy’s red card, which threatened to spoil a tie that needed no help. (Image by: Gary Fox)

O’Neill was left frustrated after ten-man Shels’ had chances to win the game in the second half with a strong breeze behind them:

“We did well. Should have won it, even with ten men. We bossed the game”.

“We knew from doing the warm up, with the wind and the bobbly pitch, we knew that we couldn’t play ball so we said we’d defend for the first half. If we could get in with a clean sheet at half time then we could have a real go at them in the second half. Which happened”.

O’Neill was quick to point out how pleased he was with Anto Flood up front:

“He ran all night long. His work rate was tremendous. We worked on that the last two weeks now. We worked on his work rate, closing people down all over the pitch. Trying to get him to stop moaning!

Murphy was dismissed for a challenge on Conan Byrne early in the game. Footage of the incident was unclear as to whether or not there were any afters in the tackle but O’Neill was frank in his assessment:

“If it was a stamp there’s no excuse, but I haven’t seen it as it was the other side of the pitch. But yeah, if he stamped on him then there’s no excuse, he has to go."

Peter Hynes had a different view as, oddly, both men seemed to take the unconventional stance of apparently going against the normal stubborn defence of your team:

“I didn’t actually see it myself, I turned around and saw the referee give him a red card. Conan [Byrne] said he wasn’t too sure whether or not it was a red either. He felt something but he didn’t think it was a red card. It’s a pity.

“In the second half with them having the breeze they were always going to be dangerous. The breeze really killed the game for everyone. We had a few chances in the first half but we couldn’t take any, which was a pity. On another day we might have taken them but it doesn’t matter now. We’ll take the point and move on”.

“The season so far is good, the crowd are turning up to see us so hopefully it continues.” he added.

Shels’ second half substitutions have changed their performances for the better in recent weeks; Alan Mulcahy against Kildare; Mark Rutherford against Longford Town; James Keddy against Sporting Fingal. Extratime.ie put this to O’Neill to hear his view on the matter:

“It all depends on your game plan. You have a plan going into the game and sometimes it doesn’t work and you have to change it and luckily we have the squad to do that.”

The result means both sides remain third and fourth respectively. Dundalk and Waterford won however, producing a gap at the top of the table which both sides will be keen to address.