Croly praises clinical Rovers display
Credit:
Shamrock Rovers’ 5-1 win against Wexford Youths in Friday night’s FAI
Cup game will have pleased everyone involved at Tallaght Stadium but
it was the manner of the victory that most impressed assistant
manager, Trevor Croly.
“I think we did okay, we got crosses in the box, we got beyond them and we could have maybe had one or two more. We were disappointed to give the goal away but I think we showed a bit of quality when we got to the wide areas and got it in. We made them pay, which is harsh on them, a reasonably young squad, but we did make them pay. I think there was probably three crosses into the box that we didn’t score off.”
And Croly admitted that it was something of a relief for the players to win by such a margin;
“Yeah, the players spoke about that because we’ve gone a goal up and sat off again. It’s been frustrating for the players, the staff and the fans. It was nice when the players spoke about that at half time, that they wanted to push on and go and knock some goals in. They did. We were pretty clinical.”
On the subject on Dessie Baker’s Man of the Match performance Michael O’Neill’s right hand man was predictably enthused.
“Yeah, he was very good. Dessie and Twiggy were very good tonight. They worked hard during the week on it. We weren’t as good on Tuesday (against Derry in the EA Sports Cup) as a team, and the challenge tonight was to perform, because it was a similar kind of a game in the sense that we would have been, you know, the favourites and they’d drop off. But to be fair to Wexford Youths they didn’t really drop off too much, they had a right go at it, and they did well.”
In fact the subject of Wexford’s quality was something that seems to have made an impression on Croly. When asked if the First Division side had caused some concern on the Rovers bench he replied;
“They certainly did! We came out, we started well, it was three or four minutes - scored, and looked really good. Then we took the foot off, didn’t we. They came into it and got a good goal. And they had a chance after they got the goal, down the right hand side, and we stopped. We stopped playing. We got in, had a little chat at half time about what we needed to do and to be fair to the lads they came out and they did well in the second half.”
But he was quick to dampen any suggestion that the scale of Rover’s win will affect the player’s concentration for Tuesday’s league game against Drogheda United.
“We’ve got a hard game on Tuesday”, he said before adding a touch of realism to the evening’s celebratory feel; “That was a one off”.
“I think we did okay, we got crosses in the box, we got beyond them and we could have maybe had one or two more. We were disappointed to give the goal away but I think we showed a bit of quality when we got to the wide areas and got it in. We made them pay, which is harsh on them, a reasonably young squad, but we did make them pay. I think there was probably three crosses into the box that we didn’t score off.”
And Croly admitted that it was something of a relief for the players to win by such a margin;
“Yeah, the players spoke about that because we’ve gone a goal up and sat off again. It’s been frustrating for the players, the staff and the fans. It was nice when the players spoke about that at half time, that they wanted to push on and go and knock some goals in. They did. We were pretty clinical.”
On the subject on Dessie Baker’s Man of the Match performance Michael O’Neill’s right hand man was predictably enthused.
“Yeah, he was very good. Dessie and Twiggy were very good tonight. They worked hard during the week on it. We weren’t as good on Tuesday (against Derry in the EA Sports Cup) as a team, and the challenge tonight was to perform, because it was a similar kind of a game in the sense that we would have been, you know, the favourites and they’d drop off. But to be fair to Wexford Youths they didn’t really drop off too much, they had a right go at it, and they did well.”
In fact the subject of Wexford’s quality was something that seems to have made an impression on Croly. When asked if the First Division side had caused some concern on the Rovers bench he replied;
“They certainly did! We came out, we started well, it was three or four minutes - scored, and looked really good. Then we took the foot off, didn’t we. They came into it and got a good goal. And they had a chance after they got the goal, down the right hand side, and we stopped. We stopped playing. We got in, had a little chat at half time about what we needed to do and to be fair to the lads they came out and they did well in the second half.”
But he was quick to dampen any suggestion that the scale of Rover’s win will affect the player’s concentration for Tuesday’s league game against Drogheda United.
“We’ve got a hard game on Tuesday”, he said before adding a touch of realism to the evening’s celebratory feel; “That was a one off”.
About Simon O'Gorman
Simon O'Gorman began reporting for Extratime in 2010. He remembers Milltown and Flower Lodge and, back in the mists of time, saw Diego Maradona play at Lansdowne Road. He now lives in Co Kildare and … View Full Profile