Connor finds reasons to be cheerful
Credit:
Galway manager Sean Connor and left back Shaun Kelly both spoke
exclusively to ExtraTime.ie after their narrow 3-2 defeat to Dundalk at
Oriel Park. Neither were too downhearted after a good performance that
might have garnered a point on another night.
Sean Connor spoke first “Aye I’m disappointed you know when you get to 2-2 with 10 minutes to go you should be good enough to see the game out. I feel sorry for the players because they’ve worked really, really hard, I hate it when you get done by a set piece because then it comes down to individual responsibility and there’s always someone to blame.”
Galway have had a stressful winter and the squad are still gelling, Sean thinks this had an influence on the result “In the first game (St Pats) we got a bit leggy, I think we lasted longer tonight, we’re probably going to need another couple of games. The fixture list has been tough for us, we’ve had to play Pats and Dundalk who in my opinion will be there or thereabouts this year. So we haven’t had an opportunity to get a win and get a bit of confidence under our belt. I think maybe that performance tonight might give us that confidence but at the end of the day I can’t sit down and say oh well done boys we’ve lost again, you have to be disappointed and I am disappointed and thankfully the players are disappointed.”
The Tribesmen were a handful going forward and Karl Moore put in a man of the match performance, Sean can see ways to build on the defeat “At times I thought we made it easy for them, I think at times we looked good when we put the balls in the right areas in behind them and in between them and got Karl Moore on the ball. Too many of the balls dropped short, too many were high up the middle and easy for their centre halves to deal with. I thought over the 90 minutes their front two caused us more problems than my front two caused Dundalk. When you look at the two budgets you know we are 2 they are 7 or whatever it is the difference was the quality. I think if I had Jason Byrne or Mark Quigley in my team we win.”
“I think Karl Moore is good enough to play in any team in this league, I rate him really, really highly I think he’s a terrific young man he needs to appreciate how good he is and how good he can be and once he does that then we’ll see the real Karl Moore.”
Ex Lilywhite Shaun Kelly also felt that his new team could have got a point as well as plaudits from the game “We were very unlucky today, I suppose that’s part and parcel of the game coming from a goal down twice it’s disappointing to go down to a set piece especially. I think we matched them for most of the game and we probably deserved a point maybe. They controlled the game most times and had more possession than us but it just shows that we’ve not had much time together there are new boys coming in and we’re still asking the names of them. We’ve only had 3 or 4 sessions together recently so I think it’s positive on our behalf considering that people are putting us down and telling us that we are going to get relegated already so considering that I think we’ve proved a few people wrong tonight.”
Shaun was pleased with the forward play of himself (earning their penalty) and his team mates “The games changing fullbacks have got to go forward as well as defend, then when we do go forward I think we did do well. When we went forward I think we caused them problems wee Karl Moore was on the wing he done well so hopefully we can take positives out of it and next week get some points on the board.” Shaun spent 2 years at Oriel and enjoyed being back “It was good, it was actually weird to be back, I was speaking to the boys before the game and I’m sure I’ll be speaking to them now. It was different playing against your “mates” I enjoyed it though I thought it was good.”
He reacquainted himself with Ross Gaynor in the fourth minute to such an extent that he was booked, had he bought Ross a drink by way of apology? “He was having a few words with me after that alright we were having a laugh about it there. There was nothing malicious in it but I didn’t do myself any favours getting booked so early.”
So Galway host UCD next game up and all at Terryland will hope that a similar performance to last night will bring the first points of the season.
Sean Connor spoke first “Aye I’m disappointed you know when you get to 2-2 with 10 minutes to go you should be good enough to see the game out. I feel sorry for the players because they’ve worked really, really hard, I hate it when you get done by a set piece because then it comes down to individual responsibility and there’s always someone to blame.”
Galway have had a stressful winter and the squad are still gelling, Sean thinks this had an influence on the result “In the first game (St Pats) we got a bit leggy, I think we lasted longer tonight, we’re probably going to need another couple of games. The fixture list has been tough for us, we’ve had to play Pats and Dundalk who in my opinion will be there or thereabouts this year. So we haven’t had an opportunity to get a win and get a bit of confidence under our belt. I think maybe that performance tonight might give us that confidence but at the end of the day I can’t sit down and say oh well done boys we’ve lost again, you have to be disappointed and I am disappointed and thankfully the players are disappointed.”
The Tribesmen were a handful going forward and Karl Moore put in a man of the match performance, Sean can see ways to build on the defeat “At times I thought we made it easy for them, I think at times we looked good when we put the balls in the right areas in behind them and in between them and got Karl Moore on the ball. Too many of the balls dropped short, too many were high up the middle and easy for their centre halves to deal with. I thought over the 90 minutes their front two caused us more problems than my front two caused Dundalk. When you look at the two budgets you know we are 2 they are 7 or whatever it is the difference was the quality. I think if I had Jason Byrne or Mark Quigley in my team we win.”
“I think Karl Moore is good enough to play in any team in this league, I rate him really, really highly I think he’s a terrific young man he needs to appreciate how good he is and how good he can be and once he does that then we’ll see the real Karl Moore.”
Ex Lilywhite Shaun Kelly also felt that his new team could have got a point as well as plaudits from the game “We were very unlucky today, I suppose that’s part and parcel of the game coming from a goal down twice it’s disappointing to go down to a set piece especially. I think we matched them for most of the game and we probably deserved a point maybe. They controlled the game most times and had more possession than us but it just shows that we’ve not had much time together there are new boys coming in and we’re still asking the names of them. We’ve only had 3 or 4 sessions together recently so I think it’s positive on our behalf considering that people are putting us down and telling us that we are going to get relegated already so considering that I think we’ve proved a few people wrong tonight.”
Shaun was pleased with the forward play of himself (earning their penalty) and his team mates “The games changing fullbacks have got to go forward as well as defend, then when we do go forward I think we did do well. When we went forward I think we caused them problems wee Karl Moore was on the wing he done well so hopefully we can take positives out of it and next week get some points on the board.” Shaun spent 2 years at Oriel and enjoyed being back “It was good, it was actually weird to be back, I was speaking to the boys before the game and I’m sure I’ll be speaking to them now. It was different playing against your “mates” I enjoyed it though I thought it was good.”
He reacquainted himself with Ross Gaynor in the fourth minute to such an extent that he was booked, had he bought Ross a drink by way of apology? “He was having a few words with me after that alright we were having a laugh about it there. There was nothing malicious in it but I didn’t do myself any favours getting booked so early.”
So Galway host UCD next game up and all at Terryland will hope that a similar performance to last night will bring the first points of the season.
