Mark Doyle: ‘We're far behind now but all you can do is do what we're doing, show up and try and get the three points’

None

St Patrick’s Athletic may have suffered a fatal blow in their bid to win a Premier Division title for the first time in a decade – but Mark Doyle is not ready to give up the ghost yet.

Doyle was on the Tolka Park pitch on Friday night as the Saints fell to a 2-1 defeat against Dublin rivals Shelbourne.

And that loss means the Athletic are now seven points behind league leaders Shamrock Rovers with just seven games left to play.

“We're really disappointed,” Doyle told extratime.com after Friday’s defeat. “I think we were in control of the game.

“They had a good bit of possession but I think we were comfortable at 1-0 and then obviously the sending off has given them the impetus.

“But we should have played better with 10. We didn’t have to drop off as much as we did. We can probably be a bit more composed with 10 on the ball.

“It was decent at half time but we were thinking to just go on and do the same again but obviously the circumstances changed in the game and we’re just really disappointed in the end.”

Next up for Doyle and his Saints teammates is a FAI Cup quarter-final against Finn Harps in Ballybofey.

And the former Drogheda United man knows the importance of the Saints being able to react well ahead of a ‘huge’ game.

“It's a huge game and we just have to react. We're all disappointed and (Friday) didn't go our way either so we have to bounce back. We've still got loads to play for.



“We've got the FAI Cup away at Finn Harps which is going to be a tough game and then obviously we've big league games then as well.

“We're far behind now but all you can do is do what we're doing, show up and try to get three points (in each game).”

About Andrew Dempsey

View Full Profile