Gallagher mystified by horror showing
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For the second time in seven days, Finn Harps manager James Gallagher had to try and put into words his disappointment with the way his side threw away another two points at home, this time to Athlone Town on Friday night.
Last week, Harps were a goal up against Wexford but ended up taking only a point from the game after they conceded an awfully soft equaliser twenty minutes from time.
Fast forward a week and it had got even worse for the Ballybofey side, who were two-nil down after sixteen minutes when a series of disastrous mistakes allowed Declan O’Brien to score the easiest brace he will probably ever notch up.
“It’s a game we won two nil if you take out the two individual errors, again,” Harps boss James Gallagher pondered afterwards. “We know that’s not what the stats will say, it’s two each. It’s hard really to look at it from a positive point of view in regards we were two nil down and then come back. Overall, it was just a poor, disjointed performance against a team who are negative in the way they set up to play, hoping to get wee breaks here and there.”
Gallagher, visibly frustrated, questioned the unsavoury manner in which Athlone played the game out when Harps had pulled it back to 2-2 following strikes from Stephen McLaughlin and Kevin McHugh.
The Harps boss, however, was by no means disguising his own side’s miserable performance, stating that even though Matthew Crossan went agonisingly close to steeling the three points at the death, it wouldn’t have clouded what was a disastrous showing.
He said: “We’ve obviously gifted them the two goals, and after that they’re wasting time, boys are going down injured. I don’t know if you give them credit for that – they’re drawing 2-2 and you have boys dropping, physio’s running on left, right and centre.
“And then you have the man in the middle, who after all that, decides to give three minutes injury-time. Although he may have ended up playing five minutes, for him to make the call that there should be only three minutes injury-time just shows you how ridiculous he can be at times.
“Overall, though, even if the ‘keeper doesn’t pull off that save near the end to deny Mattie (Crossan), and we win the game, I’d still be sitting here very disappointed with the performance.”
There was some positive in the way Harps managed to pull themselves back from two down, but against a side like Athlone and playing at home, you really wouldn’t expect anything less.
“The penalty – I’m not sure what to make of it – has got us back to 2-2 and the game has gone a bit flat after that. Again, do you give credit to Athlone for that, but I know that’s not the way we play. We try and win matches, we don’t try and kill games or see them out. But I suppose everyone to his own. It was there for us to push on and get a third, I just think there was too many wrong decisions in good areas, too many wrong passes – it wasn’t really there and hasn’t been there for a good part of the season.
“Yes it’s good to see the way we’ve come back from two down to get a point, but really between tonight and last week against Wexford, it’s four points dropped. We really needed six points from those two games. Now we have to do it the hard way – we have Waterford, Cork, Derry – and we have to get points there.”
The game marked the first senior debut for youngster Raymond Foy, who partnered Tommy Bonner and Mark Forker at the tip of a three-man midfield.
“It was a difficult night for him. And that frustrates me as much as anything, when you bring a young player in, the rest of the players should be able to look after him and he should be able to enjoy the game. It was ridiculous there and at times in the first half he was a wee bit lost, along with everybody else, but he’s playing with boys who have played all season and it shouldn’t have been that way. “He should’ve been able to come in there and show people what he can do because he is a very good player. I was happy enough with him, it’s a good experience for him, and unfortunately he’s in there on his own. Too many of our players just didn’t help him out,” sighed the manager.
Last week, Harps were a goal up against Wexford but ended up taking only a point from the game after they conceded an awfully soft equaliser twenty minutes from time.
Fast forward a week and it had got even worse for the Ballybofey side, who were two-nil down after sixteen minutes when a series of disastrous mistakes allowed Declan O’Brien to score the easiest brace he will probably ever notch up.
“It’s a game we won two nil if you take out the two individual errors, again,” Harps boss James Gallagher pondered afterwards. “We know that’s not what the stats will say, it’s two each. It’s hard really to look at it from a positive point of view in regards we were two nil down and then come back. Overall, it was just a poor, disjointed performance against a team who are negative in the way they set up to play, hoping to get wee breaks here and there.”
Gallagher, visibly frustrated, questioned the unsavoury manner in which Athlone played the game out when Harps had pulled it back to 2-2 following strikes from Stephen McLaughlin and Kevin McHugh.
The Harps boss, however, was by no means disguising his own side’s miserable performance, stating that even though Matthew Crossan went agonisingly close to steeling the three points at the death, it wouldn’t have clouded what was a disastrous showing.
He said: “We’ve obviously gifted them the two goals, and after that they’re wasting time, boys are going down injured. I don’t know if you give them credit for that – they’re drawing 2-2 and you have boys dropping, physio’s running on left, right and centre.
“And then you have the man in the middle, who after all that, decides to give three minutes injury-time. Although he may have ended up playing five minutes, for him to make the call that there should be only three minutes injury-time just shows you how ridiculous he can be at times.
“Overall, though, even if the ‘keeper doesn’t pull off that save near the end to deny Mattie (Crossan), and we win the game, I’d still be sitting here very disappointed with the performance.”
There was some positive in the way Harps managed to pull themselves back from two down, but against a side like Athlone and playing at home, you really wouldn’t expect anything less.
“The penalty – I’m not sure what to make of it – has got us back to 2-2 and the game has gone a bit flat after that. Again, do you give credit to Athlone for that, but I know that’s not the way we play. We try and win matches, we don’t try and kill games or see them out. But I suppose everyone to his own. It was there for us to push on and get a third, I just think there was too many wrong decisions in good areas, too many wrong passes – it wasn’t really there and hasn’t been there for a good part of the season.
“Yes it’s good to see the way we’ve come back from two down to get a point, but really between tonight and last week against Wexford, it’s four points dropped. We really needed six points from those two games. Now we have to do it the hard way – we have Waterford, Cork, Derry – and we have to get points there.”
The game marked the first senior debut for youngster Raymond Foy, who partnered Tommy Bonner and Mark Forker at the tip of a three-man midfield.
“It was a difficult night for him. And that frustrates me as much as anything, when you bring a young player in, the rest of the players should be able to look after him and he should be able to enjoy the game. It was ridiculous there and at times in the first half he was a wee bit lost, along with everybody else, but he’s playing with boys who have played all season and it shouldn’t have been that way. “He should’ve been able to come in there and show people what he can do because he is a very good player. I was happy enough with him, it’s a good experience for him, and unfortunately he’s in there on his own. Too many of our players just didn’t help him out,” sighed the manager.
