Devlin disappointed at Cup exit
Credit:
Exiting a Cup competition at the first hurdle is never a pleasant
experience for a football manager and Bray Wanderers defeat to
Drogheda United in the EA Sports Cup on Monday represented the second
such set back for Pat Devlin this season. Having already departed from
the Leinster Senior Cup, at the hands of St Patrick’s Athletic two
weeks ago, Devlin now finds himself without a platform to blood
fringe players, a point that he made to ExtraTime.ie when we caught up
with him after the game.
“We made eight changes from the game the other night (a 1-0 win in the league, away to UCD) and gave some lads a run. We huffed and puffed, you know, we probably didn’t deserve to get beaten but we probably didn’t deserve to win either, to be fair. It’s the League Cup and obviously I’m very disappointed, the club is disappointed. But it just shows you; I thought we had a little bit of depth. Then you put players in and you [find that you] don’t have the depth you like to think you have. But look, what can you do? You get on with it and you concentrate on the next game which is against Derry. It’s a very big game for us, very important.”
“I’m just disappointed for some of the players because games like this gives them a chance to mature and be better players and now that we’re out of that you can’t use it to experiment. We played two centre halves tonight who had never played together, we played a right back who never played right back, things like that, but now that we’re out of that we’re back down to the league games where it’s a bit more difficult to experiment and blood young lads. But I’m happy enough with some of them that did well. I’m a little unhappy with some of the more experienced players but that’s the way it was, you know.”
Another negative for Devlin on the night was the truncated return from injury of striker Gary Shaw who came on at half time but had to be withdrawn just half an hour later.
“It looks like a broken toe, the same toe. He’s gone off to have it x- rayed but it doesn’t look good and it’s very disappointing from our point of view. We were just getting him back, this was his first runout and to then go and break his toe again is just horrendous. I just hope it’s not as bad as we fear but it doesn’t look good.”
On a more positive note Devlin welcomed the addition of former Derry City and Sporting Fingal goalkeeper Darren Quigley who sat on the bench on Monday night.
“Darren is a fantastic signing and we were going to start him tonight but we felt that Brian (Kane) has been very good and we showed a little bit of loyalty to him. Darren’s great and Brian’s a great lad too so we have good competition there now and that will stabilise us a little bit better in that area.”
“We made eight changes from the game the other night (a 1-0 win in the league, away to UCD) and gave some lads a run. We huffed and puffed, you know, we probably didn’t deserve to get beaten but we probably didn’t deserve to win either, to be fair. It’s the League Cup and obviously I’m very disappointed, the club is disappointed. But it just shows you; I thought we had a little bit of depth. Then you put players in and you [find that you] don’t have the depth you like to think you have. But look, what can you do? You get on with it and you concentrate on the next game which is against Derry. It’s a very big game for us, very important.”
“I’m just disappointed for some of the players because games like this gives them a chance to mature and be better players and now that we’re out of that you can’t use it to experiment. We played two centre halves tonight who had never played together, we played a right back who never played right back, things like that, but now that we’re out of that we’re back down to the league games where it’s a bit more difficult to experiment and blood young lads. But I’m happy enough with some of them that did well. I’m a little unhappy with some of the more experienced players but that’s the way it was, you know.”
Another negative for Devlin on the night was the truncated return from injury of striker Gary Shaw who came on at half time but had to be withdrawn just half an hour later.
“It looks like a broken toe, the same toe. He’s gone off to have it x- rayed but it doesn’t look good and it’s very disappointing from our point of view. We were just getting him back, this was his first runout and to then go and break his toe again is just horrendous. I just hope it’s not as bad as we fear but it doesn’t look good.”
On a more positive note Devlin welcomed the addition of former Derry City and Sporting Fingal goalkeeper Darren Quigley who sat on the bench on Monday night.
“Darren is a fantastic signing and we were going to start him tonight but we felt that Brian (Kane) has been very good and we showed a little bit of loyalty to him. Darren’s great and Brian’s a great lad too so we have good competition there now and that will stabilise us a little bit better in that area.”
About Simon O'Gorman
Simon O'Gorman began reporting for Extratime in 2010. He remembers Milltown and Flower Lodge and, back in the mists of time, saw Diego Maradona play at Lansdowne Road. He now lives in Co Kildare and … View Full Profile