Keely dejected after 'shocking' display
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Win, lose or draw Dermot Keely almost always cuts an animated, even agitated figure on the touch-line, however, the League of Ireland legend’s dismay at watching his Shelbourne side allow a one goal lead turn in to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Wexford Youths was clearly reflected on this occasion by his almost stunned silence.
Stunned silence that was until he was asked to verbalise his feelings on Friday night’s encounter and Shels’ season to date, at which point no one was spared his wrath, himself included:
“As they say, you reap what you sow, and in this case that’s what I do. It’s down to me. I’ve two smashing coaches, smashing facilities, we work hard, we do everything right off the pitch. The directors do everything right and I think for the first time in my life I have come up short with players.”
“I chose the wrong players.” Was the manager’s own damning synopsis of the squad he assembled during the off-season.
And “shocking” was the verdict on Friday night’s performance: “When people start tackling you and putting you under a little pressure, we didn’t deal with that at all and that is most disappointing.”
Keely had no complaints over the referee’s decision to award a second-half penalty against Sean Byrne or the 75th minute dismissal of Michael Clarke as bemoaning an official would constitute deflecting the blame away from his team’s own deficiencies.
When questioned on what the objectives are for the remainder of the season the straight-talking Dubliner could only respond: “Well you see there’s two things there, what are my objectives and what are the team’s objectives? If they’re not the same well then it doesn’t really matter. Look, you can’t get beaten 2-1 at home by Wexford and seriously think you’re going to win the league. I think that’s painfully obvious.”
Adding, “Whether you can regroup and look for second or third spot, I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Stunned silence that was until he was asked to verbalise his feelings on Friday night’s encounter and Shels’ season to date, at which point no one was spared his wrath, himself included:
“As they say, you reap what you sow, and in this case that’s what I do. It’s down to me. I’ve two smashing coaches, smashing facilities, we work hard, we do everything right off the pitch. The directors do everything right and I think for the first time in my life I have come up short with players.”
“I chose the wrong players.” Was the manager’s own damning synopsis of the squad he assembled during the off-season.
And “shocking” was the verdict on Friday night’s performance: “When people start tackling you and putting you under a little pressure, we didn’t deal with that at all and that is most disappointing.”
Keely had no complaints over the referee’s decision to award a second-half penalty against Sean Byrne or the 75th minute dismissal of Michael Clarke as bemoaning an official would constitute deflecting the blame away from his team’s own deficiencies.
When questioned on what the objectives are for the remainder of the season the straight-talking Dubliner could only respond: “Well you see there’s two things there, what are my objectives and what are the team’s objectives? If they’re not the same well then it doesn’t really matter. Look, you can’t get beaten 2-1 at home by Wexford and seriously think you’re going to win the league. I think that’s painfully obvious.”
Adding, “Whether you can regroup and look for second or third spot, I don’t know. We’ll see.”
About Eoin Manning
Eoin Manning has been a part of the extratime.ie reporting team since 2009 and covers the Dublin clubs. Eoin also writes for many of the countries national newspapers and can be contacted at eoinpmanning@gmail.com View Full Profile