Fenlon aims to learn from past lessons
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
It’s been one year, save for a week, since Red Bull Salzburg’s Patrik
Jezek meted out the cruellest of blows to a Bohemians side on the
verge of taking their place in the third qualifying round of the
Champions League.
The weight of disappointment that night is something best forgotten according to Pat Fenlon, on the eve of this year’s opening second qualifying round tie against The New Saints. As with every mishap and positive managerial philosophy, Fenlon agrees there is always something to take away from adversity, always something to learn.
“I think the first time it’s been spoken about [the Salzburg game] has been today but it’s not something that went through my mind. You don’t want to think about things like that….people probably will, people will have a little think about it, probably the second leg more than anything if we can get through that and you learn from what happened last year against Salzburg. It was one of those things, we just switched off ….and with saying that it was probably my fault more than anybodies because maybe we should have took Crowey [Glen Crowe] off at that stage, we didn’t get to close the throw-in down [that led to the goal]. I know it’s down the other end of the pitch but in fairness to him [Crowe] he’d worked so hard in the two legs…the lesson for me is that maybe get your centre forward off a bit quicker when he’s played two matches on his own up front.” stated the Bohs boss at Phibsboro headquarters.
The opposition facing the Gypsies this time round may be somewhat of a lesser light in terms of Continental pedigree than their Austrian counterparts but Fenlon believes his side will have it put up to them over the two legs. “ They look decent [TNS], they look like they’re a well coached, well drilled team that have a system that they stick to with good players, most of them comfortable on the ball and want to pass it so I think it will be a tough game for us to be honest.”
After a Monday morning training session the Phibsboro outfit spent time looking over DVD footage of some recent friendly games of TNS but Fenlon wasn’t putting a huge deal of value on the merits of a sides form in these encounters. “Pre-season friendlies can be a little bit deceiving because I’ve played in a few where you think you’ve played against better sides that had loads of ball and that look great and then all of a sudden they’ve their first league game and get battered because the tempo of the game has changed.” Fenlon continued.
“One thing with it as well is we don’t overload them [his own players] with loads of jargon. We need to give them a game-plan, what the [opposition] are like, put a face to some of the names, how they’re going to play and how they’re going to set up.”
With Bohemians hitting form at the right time and Paddy Madden in particular bagging goals at will, the Bohs’ supremo is prioritising his rearguard action for the Dalymount clash. “The important thing is not to concede a goal. That would be important enough for us. Even though I still think we’re good enough to go and get goals over there it would be nice to go there without conceding,” Fenlon concluded.
The weight of disappointment that night is something best forgotten according to Pat Fenlon, on the eve of this year’s opening second qualifying round tie against The New Saints. As with every mishap and positive managerial philosophy, Fenlon agrees there is always something to take away from adversity, always something to learn.
“I think the first time it’s been spoken about [the Salzburg game] has been today but it’s not something that went through my mind. You don’t want to think about things like that….people probably will, people will have a little think about it, probably the second leg more than anything if we can get through that and you learn from what happened last year against Salzburg. It was one of those things, we just switched off ….and with saying that it was probably my fault more than anybodies because maybe we should have took Crowey [Glen Crowe] off at that stage, we didn’t get to close the throw-in down [that led to the goal]. I know it’s down the other end of the pitch but in fairness to him [Crowe] he’d worked so hard in the two legs…the lesson for me is that maybe get your centre forward off a bit quicker when he’s played two matches on his own up front.” stated the Bohs boss at Phibsboro headquarters.
The opposition facing the Gypsies this time round may be somewhat of a lesser light in terms of Continental pedigree than their Austrian counterparts but Fenlon believes his side will have it put up to them over the two legs. “ They look decent [TNS], they look like they’re a well coached, well drilled team that have a system that they stick to with good players, most of them comfortable on the ball and want to pass it so I think it will be a tough game for us to be honest.”
After a Monday morning training session the Phibsboro outfit spent time looking over DVD footage of some recent friendly games of TNS but Fenlon wasn’t putting a huge deal of value on the merits of a sides form in these encounters. “Pre-season friendlies can be a little bit deceiving because I’ve played in a few where you think you’ve played against better sides that had loads of ball and that look great and then all of a sudden they’ve their first league game and get battered because the tempo of the game has changed.” Fenlon continued.
“One thing with it as well is we don’t overload them [his own players] with loads of jargon. We need to give them a game-plan, what the [opposition] are like, put a face to some of the names, how they’re going to play and how they’re going to set up.”
With Bohemians hitting form at the right time and Paddy Madden in particular bagging goals at will, the Bohs’ supremo is prioritising his rearguard action for the Dalymount clash. “The important thing is not to concede a goal. That would be important enough for us. Even though I still think we’re good enough to go and get goals over there it would be nice to go there without conceding,” Fenlon concluded.
