Reaction to Shels victory over Waterford United

Mark O’Brien spoke with extratime.ie after the game in Tolka Park on Friday and was delighted with the amount of chances Shels’ created against promotion rivals Waterford United.

“Great win in the end, it was a difficult game. First twenty minutes we played a lot of good football, but then we dropped it a little bit. We let them back into it and then it turned scrappy. It opened up again in the last fifteen or twenty minutes and you saw that with the amount of chances that Philly Hughes and Bisto [Anto Flood] enjoyed.”

Shels dominated the game and in truth a 2-0 score-line was a bit flattering on the visitors. But O’Brien was aware that the late winner scored by Flood made for some nervy moments in the second half.

“You’re never going to fully dominate a game, no matter who you play they’re always going to have a spell and they’re going to put some pressure on you but you just have to get through that.”

O’Brien, enjoying a run in the side at the expense of suspended Greg O’Halloran, was pleased that Shels’ could play in better conditions than last weeks 0-0 draw with Sporting Fingal at Morton Stadium.

“Condition wise it was far different from last week, the wind and the pitch made a huge difference last week, you could see that in the way we played”

“Last week you had to grind out a result especially with the man sent off but in the end we probably should have won that one with Bisto’s chance. This week I think, well, we win the majority of the games we play at home anyway, were obviously going to be strong at home we feel.”

Damien Brennan was also pleased with the amount of chances produced at Tolka Park however words of caution were sounded about how many they miss. But for a fine save from Dean Delaney from a Vinnie Sullivan around the hour mark kept Shels’ ahead as again they struggled to put away their chances.

“We had a lot of chances and in the last couple of games we haven’t really put them away. Tonight we should have been four or five up and in the weeks to come I hope we can start putting those chances away because at one nil there’s always a chance that they can come back into it”

“I though some of the football we played was premier division football because a lot of the players are from there, but yea overall it probably was our best performance”

The victory keeps Shels’ in touch with leaders Dundalk and Brennan is happy with that, for know.

“I think Dundalk are the favourites [for promotion], they’ve probably got the best squad in the league and were just behind them. I think realistically we’ll be looking to stay in second and if we can nip it then happy days”

Shels’ next league game is a trip to Limerick on 2th May.