Disappointment for Tullamore's Greene

Speaking to Extratime on Saturday night, Tullamore Town manager Jimmy Greene was clearly disappointed to see his side slip out of the FAI Cup after their 3-1 defeat to Salthill Devon. Having taken an early lead through a Trevor Moylan penalty the key moment came when an error by the home side’s young goalkeeper presented Salthill with an equaliser in the dying seconds of the first half.

“I’m very disappointed because I thought we did very well in the first half. We actually limited them to no shots at all and we looked to be coasting to half time with one goal up. And all of a sudden we make a mistake. I think our ‘keeper should have put the ball over the line and into the trees but we gave away a silly goal and about a minute afterwards the whistle is blown for half time. But I was still happy enough at that stage with our performance.

Sadly for Tullamore there were further mistakes in the second half.

“As I said before the game we were looking for a performance to build on things here at the club but unfortunately I think in the second half we gave them an earlyish enough goal, a soft enough header. Kennedy came on and we actually hadn’t dealt with the second player up front and he got in behind and I think the ‘keeper, again, he should have came and taken the ball but he didn’t and Kennedy got a free header in."

"He was only on two minutes at that stage and we hadn’t dealt with him and we were a little bit small at the back as well to deal with crosses. We shouldn’t have allowed the cross to come over in the first place.”

Conceding a penalty shortly afterwards sealed Tullamore’s exit from this year’s FAI Cup and again Greene felt that mistakes were made by his team. But he was keen to emphasise the positives for a young side that still have plenty to look forward to in the season ahead.

“I think they got a soft enough penalty. It was our own fault really, I don’t really have any complaints with the penalty itself but I think leading up to the penalty our player was dragged to the ground by their number five (James Whelan) and it was never dealt with... and in frustration at not getting a free out, I suppose, he gave away a penalty. But these are the things you’ve got to learn from. Our players have got to learn from that."

"A lot of these players are coming from Junior backgrounds and sometimes they make mistakes that a senior player wouldn’t make. We made those mistakes and unfortunately we suffered because of them. But look, I think as a club and as a team we’re moving forward anyway and that’s the important thing. We’re disappointed to be out of the Cup, we wish Salthill all the best, but you know, we move on from here and hopefully have a good season.”