Pats Keep it Simple and Prosper
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
St Patrick’s Athletic manager Pete Mahon was understandably satisfied with his
team after their 3-0 win over Dundalk at Oriel Park. “Good win, I thought we
played reasonably well, we passed the ball around. Obviously getting
the early goal and the other so soon after that helped us, Dundalk
were always chasing the game after that. I even thought we could have
had one or two more goals before half time. They put a bit of pressure
on us at the start of the second half as we thought they would, but
the third goal killed the game.”
Training ground preparation played a major role in the win as Pete explained “It’s funny when you score three goals and you don’t score one from open play. Believe it or not we actually did a bit of work on set pieces yesterday when it comes off its great but we won’t be getting too carried away with that. The most important thing was that we won, we scored three goals away from home it’s always good, so we’re very happy.”
Pats are aiming to use the distraction of European games for their opposition to their advantage “We have the three European teams, (Dundalk, Sporting Fingal and Bohemians) we’ve two more in the next two games so I did say that if we could come out of those games with four points it would give us a great chance of qualifying for Europe. We have three now in the bag, we play Fingal next Sunday and then Bohs so we’ll see. The big plus (the full time teams) have over us is that they don’t do any more training than us but they get more rest and that might be a factor I feel come the end of the season.”
Asked if Pete had any sympathy for the plight that Ian Foster finds himself in he answered “Certainly do, they had a long trip to Bulgaria which is not ideal to play in that kind of heat and then to come back and play a league game on the Sunday. I think Pats were in a similar situation last year when they were in Europe. I wasn’t involved then but unfortunately that’s what happens when you play in Europe. I would swap with any of the other European teams to have a crack at Europe again, but unfortunately it is a problem. We took the benefit of it tonight and hopefully the same for the next two games.”
Dave Mulcahy scored a first half brace to open his account for the season, Pete felt that they were overdue “I actually said before the game, it was time he scored a goal coming up on the bus and there you go he gets two. It’s good for him as well because he’s been playing well for us and he’s had a couple of chances in earlier games and didn’t score but it all come right for him tonight.”
Ryan Guy and Paul Byrne gave the Dundalk centre halves a torrid evening but Pete didn’t want to single them out for praise “They did play well but I thought the whole team played well, our approach play at times was good we tried to pass the ball.”
Pete still sees the game as essentially very simple “You listen to other managers trying to tell us how to play football in the league but this league is unique. We all want to be technical and tactical and all this kind of stuff, I think that it’s a load of rubbish at the end. It’s all about the players that you have and we have a good bunch of players here, we’re not world beaters but we give 100% every week and that’s why we do so well.”
The Pats work rate was far superior as they were quicker in thought and deed all over the park than their opponents. Mahon sees competition in the squad as key to this “Thankfully for me I have a few players now on the bench, I have a bit of a strong bench for the first time now in a while that keeps everybody on their toes and we have another bit of a break until next Sunday which will help us as well hopefully. Its good, things are going well at the moment so you’re always happy, but football being what it is two or three bad defeats and it’s a different landscape but we’re just going along nicely so we’ll see what happens now.”
Training ground preparation played a major role in the win as Pete explained “It’s funny when you score three goals and you don’t score one from open play. Believe it or not we actually did a bit of work on set pieces yesterday when it comes off its great but we won’t be getting too carried away with that. The most important thing was that we won, we scored three goals away from home it’s always good, so we’re very happy.”
Pats are aiming to use the distraction of European games for their opposition to their advantage “We have the three European teams, (Dundalk, Sporting Fingal and Bohemians) we’ve two more in the next two games so I did say that if we could come out of those games with four points it would give us a great chance of qualifying for Europe. We have three now in the bag, we play Fingal next Sunday and then Bohs so we’ll see. The big plus (the full time teams) have over us is that they don’t do any more training than us but they get more rest and that might be a factor I feel come the end of the season.”
Asked if Pete had any sympathy for the plight that Ian Foster finds himself in he answered “Certainly do, they had a long trip to Bulgaria which is not ideal to play in that kind of heat and then to come back and play a league game on the Sunday. I think Pats were in a similar situation last year when they were in Europe. I wasn’t involved then but unfortunately that’s what happens when you play in Europe. I would swap with any of the other European teams to have a crack at Europe again, but unfortunately it is a problem. We took the benefit of it tonight and hopefully the same for the next two games.”
Dave Mulcahy scored a first half brace to open his account for the season, Pete felt that they were overdue “I actually said before the game, it was time he scored a goal coming up on the bus and there you go he gets two. It’s good for him as well because he’s been playing well for us and he’s had a couple of chances in earlier games and didn’t score but it all come right for him tonight.”
Ryan Guy and Paul Byrne gave the Dundalk centre halves a torrid evening but Pete didn’t want to single them out for praise “They did play well but I thought the whole team played well, our approach play at times was good we tried to pass the ball.”
Pete still sees the game as essentially very simple “You listen to other managers trying to tell us how to play football in the league but this league is unique. We all want to be technical and tactical and all this kind of stuff, I think that it’s a load of rubbish at the end. It’s all about the players that you have and we have a good bunch of players here, we’re not world beaters but we give 100% every week and that’s why we do so well.”
The Pats work rate was far superior as they were quicker in thought and deed all over the park than their opponents. Mahon sees competition in the squad as key to this “Thankfully for me I have a few players now on the bench, I have a bit of a strong bench for the first time now in a while that keeps everybody on their toes and we have another bit of a break until next Sunday which will help us as well hopefully. Its good, things are going well at the moment so you’re always happy, but football being what it is two or three bad defeats and it’s a different landscape but we’re just going along nicely so we’ll see what happens now.”
