Connor unsatisfied by performance
Credit:
Positive aspects and areas to work on. With the first three points of the campaign somewhat jitterily tucked away, Galway United manager Sean Connor was acutely aware of the need for improvement after watching his side display potential yet appear uneasy when placed in a position of strength against Bray Wanderers.
"Happy with the win, not particularly happy with the manner of the win," Connor stated on Friday night. "I think we put ourselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure there at times. We just needed that third goal to kill the game off and that never came for us. I think then we got a bit edgy, started sitting a little too deep and inviting them to put the ball into the box which is always a problem.
"There were harsh words at half time, because we had got ourselves into a really nice position at two-nil, in total control of the game and then I felt that all over the park the energy levels just dropped. We just thought it was going to be too easy and I’m really disappointed with the goal because it was poor from our point of view.
"Defending from set pieces, we’ll work harder. We were here yesterday for 45 minutes working on it. That’s the least you expect them to do is defend well from set pieces."
The style of play wasn't pretty at times, but it certainly was effective as United threatened to run riot and easily stretch their run of victories over Eddie Gormley's men. Longs balls over the top and quick distribution to the flanks were key to their early dominance, a tactic Connor admitted had been planned.
"We had Bray watched last week and we felt that’s the areas we could expose them on. When you have Bobby [Ryan] and Derek [O’Brien] on your team you’ve got to try and get the ball wide early and look, you’ve seen Sheppard’s pace, so we’ve got to try and release him as early as we can.
"There’s no doubt about it, we tried to play quite a high tempo game getting the ball forward quickly, then trying to play the ball in their half. Which we did very well for thirty odd minutes. We then got a bit complacent and the players started doing things we weren’t asking them to do."
"Happy with the win, not particularly happy with the manner of the win," Connor stated on Friday night. "I think we put ourselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure there at times. We just needed that third goal to kill the game off and that never came for us. I think then we got a bit edgy, started sitting a little too deep and inviting them to put the ball into the box which is always a problem.
"There were harsh words at half time, because we had got ourselves into a really nice position at two-nil, in total control of the game and then I felt that all over the park the energy levels just dropped. We just thought it was going to be too easy and I’m really disappointed with the goal because it was poor from our point of view.
"Defending from set pieces, we’ll work harder. We were here yesterday for 45 minutes working on it. That’s the least you expect them to do is defend well from set pieces."
The style of play wasn't pretty at times, but it certainly was effective as United threatened to run riot and easily stretch their run of victories over Eddie Gormley's men. Longs balls over the top and quick distribution to the flanks were key to their early dominance, a tactic Connor admitted had been planned.
"We had Bray watched last week and we felt that’s the areas we could expose them on. When you have Bobby [Ryan] and Derek [O’Brien] on your team you’ve got to try and get the ball wide early and look, you’ve seen Sheppard’s pace, so we’ve got to try and release him as early as we can.
"There’s no doubt about it, we tried to play quite a high tempo game getting the ball forward quickly, then trying to play the ball in their half. Which we did very well for thirty odd minutes. We then got a bit complacent and the players started doing things we weren’t asking them to do."
About Alan Dooley
is one of Extratime's longest serving contributors. Based in County Galway, Alan has been following the League of Ireland since the mid-1980s. His first memory of the drama of domestic football was Vinny Arkins, then … View Full Profile