Cup win a real boost for Long

In the wake of Salthill Devon’s first win of the season against Tullamore Town in the third round of the FAI Cup, manager Emlyn Long took some time out to talk to Extratime about what it meant to the Galway club.

When it was suggested that the result had taken a bit of a monkey off their back he replied;

“Yeah, I think it has. It was great that we got the goal just before half time because we got the confidence back. Sometimes you just lose a bit of confidence when you’re not getting results and you can feel that everything is going against you. So it is, it’s great to get it. It puts us in good stead for Waterford [on Tuesday night] and maybe we can battle there and maybe pick up something going into the break.”

It’s certainly a timely win for Salthill who have endured a torrid opening half of the season and while positive results remain hard to come by there has been growing recognition within the game that their performances have improved.

“Ah they definitely have. I mean we can see that and I suppose the people who go to the matches can see it, but maybe it’s hard to say it to people who aren’t at games when you’re still losing. But we’re getting there, we’re moving up all the time. And we’ve been very unfortunate with injuries since the start of the season. A couple of our very big players from last season haven’t been available to us... but definitely the lads who are playing the matches are definitely improving as the weeks go by. But it was important for us that we got the result today.”

But before that win could be claimed Long’s side had to overcome the blow of going behind;

“When Tullamore got the goal we definitely had ten or fifteen minutes where we lost confidence. That’s from losing as many games as we have. But when we got the equaliser (two minutes into added time at the end of the first half) I could see a lot of the traits that have maybe appeared in us early on in the season [in them]. When they conceded the goal it maybe just deflated them for a few minutes and we knew then we had an opportunity to regroup at half time and to push on. I think if Tullamore went in 1-0 at half time it would have been a very, very difficult second half.

And an important win will naturally prompt some reflections on the players that earned it;

“To be honest we made a few changes and it wasn’t anything like resting players, just that there are lads who have been biting at the heels to get in for the last few weeks and they got their chance today. And I think they stood up to the mat. Luke McConnell in particular was quality. It’s great to see Charlie (Burke) get two goals, that puts him as our top scorer for the season now on three. Quirky (Mike Quirke) had a good game, I think he said that for the Man of the Match they must have mixed up him with Luke McConnell. (McConnell won the award) I think he was saying it in jest though.

I think the midfield worked very well today. Luke hasn’t got in too much in the last few weeks, but he’s come on in games, maybe with twenty or twenty five minutes to go, and today was his first start in a good few weeks so he definitely stood up to the mat today. And he’s a quality footballer. He’s a young lad as well and I think he’s going to be around the League of Ireland for a good few years. I think he’s only going to improve. He’s a great passer and he has great vision.”

Finally asked if he had any preference for who Salthill Devon might draw in the fourth round he gave the age old answer of managers the world over;

“Not really, I’d like a home draw to be honest”, before adding, “It’s great for our club, it’s the first time we’ve ever been in the fourth round of the FAI Cup. Of the three Galway teams last year, no-one got in the fourth round, all three teams were knocked out straight away, so that’ll be good for Galway soccer to have three teams in the fourth round. For our club, it was something we said in the dressing room beforehand, that we wanted to do it for the club.”