Mahon confident ahead of Icelandic trip
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
With a European trip to Iceland looming for St Patrick’s Athletic, manager Pete Mahon was in optimistic mood about his charges prospects of progressing to the second round of the Europa League Qualifiers. Speaking exclusively to ExtraTime.ie, Mahon revealed the confidence he has in his side to get a result against IBV.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t beat them” he said on Monday. “I’m very optimistic. I’d like to think we’d go through. We have to bring back some kind of result here so that the tie is still alive and we’ll be gearing ourselves towards that.”
Pat’s can certainly go into this one full of confidence having gone top of the league following a hard fought 1-0 win over Bray Wanderers on Friday night. The win extended the Inchicore club’s undefeated streak to 14 league games, while another goal for Danny North saw his tally rise to 11 for the season. Mahon was quick to praise the in-form striker.
“Danny’s scored 11 goals and with the exception of one game where he scored two goals, he’s scored one goal in all the others. While all goals are important, I think it’s better for a manager to have a striker scoring one every game and that’s what Danny’s doing.”
While Pat’s confidence may be high, fitness is a different issue as fixture congestion begins to take its toll. After Thursday’s game, Pat’s face what the manager considers an even more important game just 48 hours later when the side hosts Shamrock Rovers in a top of the table clash.
Indeed Mahon decided to give his players the weekend off after the victory over Bray to recoup for the two key games. Mahon defended his decision: “The reason I gave the lads the time off was because we’d played so many games. We’ve had one weekend off since the season began and I just felt they needed to spend a bit of time with their families before we go away. I know they’ll come back rearing to go.”
Alongside fitness problems, the league leaders’ cause isn’t helped by a lack of information on their unfamiliar Icelandic opponents. There had been a plan to send a club representative to IBV’s league game last weekend. However a trip that involved a three hour bus ride and short ferry crossing on top of a four hour flight had to be scrapped only last week. Mahon admits his side are, to a certain extent, going into the unknown.
“I’m hoping we’ll get a one or two DVDs between now and tomorrow evening. We’ll study those but we’re going into the unknown here and we’re going to have to concentrate on ourselves. We’re going to set the team up so that we’ll be hard to beat.”
All this makes for a far from ideal preparation and indeed Mahon openly admits the game plan is one of avoiding defeat away and hoping to get something more from the game at Richmond Park. Asked if he thought playing the second leg at home gave his side an advantage he concluded honestly.
“It’s a hard one to call. I always like to play the second leg at home but this is kind of a different scenario. But it’ll be over two games and our main objective is to keep things boiling when we get back here.”
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t beat them” he said on Monday. “I’m very optimistic. I’d like to think we’d go through. We have to bring back some kind of result here so that the tie is still alive and we’ll be gearing ourselves towards that.”
Pat’s can certainly go into this one full of confidence having gone top of the league following a hard fought 1-0 win over Bray Wanderers on Friday night. The win extended the Inchicore club’s undefeated streak to 14 league games, while another goal for Danny North saw his tally rise to 11 for the season. Mahon was quick to praise the in-form striker.
“Danny’s scored 11 goals and with the exception of one game where he scored two goals, he’s scored one goal in all the others. While all goals are important, I think it’s better for a manager to have a striker scoring one every game and that’s what Danny’s doing.”
While Pat’s confidence may be high, fitness is a different issue as fixture congestion begins to take its toll. After Thursday’s game, Pat’s face what the manager considers an even more important game just 48 hours later when the side hosts Shamrock Rovers in a top of the table clash.
Indeed Mahon decided to give his players the weekend off after the victory over Bray to recoup for the two key games. Mahon defended his decision: “The reason I gave the lads the time off was because we’d played so many games. We’ve had one weekend off since the season began and I just felt they needed to spend a bit of time with their families before we go away. I know they’ll come back rearing to go.”
Alongside fitness problems, the league leaders’ cause isn’t helped by a lack of information on their unfamiliar Icelandic opponents. There had been a plan to send a club representative to IBV’s league game last weekend. However a trip that involved a three hour bus ride and short ferry crossing on top of a four hour flight had to be scrapped only last week. Mahon admits his side are, to a certain extent, going into the unknown.
“I’m hoping we’ll get a one or two DVDs between now and tomorrow evening. We’ll study those but we’re going into the unknown here and we’re going to have to concentrate on ourselves. We’re going to set the team up so that we’ll be hard to beat.”
All this makes for a far from ideal preparation and indeed Mahon openly admits the game plan is one of avoiding defeat away and hoping to get something more from the game at Richmond Park. Asked if he thought playing the second leg at home gave his side an advantage he concluded honestly.
“It’s a hard one to call. I always like to play the second leg at home but this is kind of a different scenario. But it’ll be over two games and our main objective is to keep things boiling when we get back here.”
About Sam Griffin
Sam joined Extratime for the 2011 season and is now the site's features editor. He is based in Dublin and covers all the clubs in the capital. He is also prone to the odd Drogheda … View Full Profile