A refreshing slice of honesty

Football has the ability to split opinion with so many ways of describing the beautiful game. Yet it can be quite baffling as to how some managers view a match.

Last Friday evening, this columnist trudged down the steps at Morton Stadium following Sporting Fingal’s 4-1 triumph over Drogheda United with that familiar feeling of uneasiness gurgling in the pit of my stomach.

While it was going to be a simple task of getting reaction from Liam Buckley after his team secured their first home win of the season, it was another matter entirely dealing with the manager of the losing side.

How do you politely quiz a manager who has just watched his team collapse in a game that they should have taken at least a point from? There is no easy way of doing it.

But a manager can sidestep potential fines from the league’s governing body and unwanted headlines if they choose to offer a balanced view of the game rather than a tirade that just tries to shift the blame elsewhere.

Drogheda boss Alan Mathews may not have planned his response to what was his team’s third defeat of the new season, but it was refreshingly honest.

“To put it mildly, I'm disappointed. I felt at half-time we could go on and win the game. Our defensive frailty again let us down,’ said Mathews in reaction to the loss.

“There was enough experience throughout the team to be able to defend better - not just the back four but defend better as a team. We just didn't do that.

“Being totally honest it's a shocking start to the season, not because of the results but because we've been so porous.”

For many, that may seem to be a run-of-the-mill ordinary response. After all, it is not that difficult to pick up on defensive lapses when Drogheda have just conceded four goals.

However, it reveals a little more about Mathews’ analysis of the game when one compares it to the post-match reaction from two Premier League bosses in the weekend just passed.

In Sunday’s Lancashire derby, Burnley manager Brian Laws blamed his side’s 1-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers on the performance of the referee.

“We didn’t get a lot of joy from any of the decisions and I was disappointed with that,” said Laws.

On Saturday, Arsene Wenger bizarrely held the St Andrews’ pitch accountable for Arsenal’s failure to get nothing more than a 1-1 draw with Birmingham City.

“I think the place is very hostile, but what is most important is the pitch is terrible,” said Wenger.

“When you go to a dentist you want him to have as bad instruments as possible to try to repair your teeth? No. If he is a good dentist he has good instruments.”

Okay, there were issues with the pitch in Birmingham and Blackburn were awarded a soft penalty, but how come the manager’s refuse to properly analyse why their teams did not win their respective games?

There will be times when managers just need to have a rant – and Mathews is guilty of this sometimes too – but when they choose to tackle the real reasons why things went wrong then it results in clarity of what has to be worked on.

If only football managers were more honest. Perhaps Mathews could act as the piper and lead others down this confessional path, but we certainly won’t be holding our breath on that one though.