Cobh manager Shane Keegan reflects on Ramblers' first defeat of the season

Shane Keegan

Shane Keegan Credit: Michael P Ryan (ETPhotos)

Paul Corcoran reports from St Colman’s Park

Cobh Ramblers slumped to their first defeat of the First Division campaign when Galway United secured a 2-0 win over Shane Keegan’s men on St Patrick’s Day.

Goals from Vince Borden and Ronan Manning were enough to keep Galway’s perfect start to the season going and put a dent in Cobh’s record for the season.

Manager Shane Keegan was disappointed with the result after the positive start to the season for the Cork club.

“Really disappointed, we were way off tonight, been very happy with the way things had gone until tonight and really happy with the start,” Keegan said, speaking to extratime.com.

“We were way off tonight, our use of the ball was way below our standard. I thought defensively we were reasonably solid.

“We made a silly mistake for the second goal and we were asleep on the set piece but our overall defending, our back four again, I thought were very good.

“In terms of on the ball nowhere near the standard that we have been so far. We had to change our shape and change the things a little bit because Wilson (Waweru) was unavailable due to the loan agreement.

“Possibly got it wrong in terms of how we set up without him to be honest. It wasn’t a good performance from us simple as that.”

After going behind in the first half, Ramblers looked very much like the team in the ascendency for a time in the second half particularly when they made their triple substitution – James O’Leary looking particularly dangerous upon his introduction on the right wing.



Disaster struck for the home side however, when a defensive error by Charlie Lyons lead to Ronan Manning’s goal.

“The fact that we looked so good for the ten or fifteen minutes after we made that change makes me think was that the way we should have started arguably.

“Look, it was a silly mistake at the back but it was a silly mistake by a guy that I thought was outstanding aside from that mistake so I don’t want to be too hard on him either and we still nearly dug our way out of it after that as well.

“But it just killed the momentum as we had looked like we might get ourselves back into the game.”

After the weekend’s fixtures, Cobh are still in second place in the First Division, up next for them is a Munster Senior Cup meeting with Treaty United before a long trip to Ballybofey to face Finn Harps on Friday night.

Keegan doesn’t believe it will be hard to re-focus his side after a tough defeat to Galway ahead of a busy week.



“It shouldn’t be tough at all to be honest. I think that no matter what way results go this weekend we’ll still be in the top three come the end of the weekend. We’ve actually got a game Monday, we have Treaty United in the Munster Senior Cup.

“After a defeat the quicker you can get back on the pitch to play a match the better.

“There will be fellas that maybe didn’t get a chance to get as many starts as they would have liked up until now, that will start on Monday night and it’s up to them to try and stake a claim to a jersey and then we roll up to Ballybofey on Friday night and we need to right the wrongs of tonight.”

About Paul Corcoran

Paul Corcoran is an experienced writer and journalist and has contributed to various publications including the Galway United match programme Maroon View. He spends much of his time covering the fortunes of Galway United's teams … View Full Profile