Kenny draws no comfort in points dropped

It was yet another draw for Shamrock Rovers at home on Friday night.  Whilst the Hoops may be unbeaten in the league in Tallaght this season, it has been the drawn games, seven at home, that have prevented them keeping pace with league leader Sligo Rovers. 

It is mid-May since the Hoops won a home game in the league and this was another win that got away from them.  Indeed Shels had a glorious chance to win all three points in injury time.  Craig Sives was on hand to save the Hoops but this came after his second half mistake had let Shels take the lead.

Speaking after the game Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Kenny reflected on what he saw as two points dropped especially having led the game for 35 minutes following Ciarán Kilduff’s first half goal. 

“Disappointed to draw the game,” was Kenny’s assessment.  “We knew we needed to get the three points.  We dominated the first half and played really well, scoring a very good goal.  We started the second half well and had a lot of the ball but Shelbourne’s game plan was to pack the defence and midfield and hope they could counter. 

“Shelbourne kept it tight.  We committed too many men forward when 1-0 up and we got punished on the counter attack.  Their goal was their first attempt and that was after 51 minutes.  We should have had a bit more about us, to be more organised in defence so that we weren’t so open.  We should not have conceded that goal.  The second one was an individual mistake but we showed the capacity to come back again, like we did in Cork last week.  It was a great goal by Ronan Finn.”

Rovers’ recent form has been, built on improving their decidedly dodgy defence from earlier on in the season.   Kenny was disappointed that his side couldn’t shut out Shelbourne. 

“We have been keeping clean sheets of late and we’ve defended well in the last six or seven weeks but tonight we made two mistakes and we got punished. We did score a goal and we went for a second one so we wouldn’t be hanging on at the death.  Our ambition at half time was to get a second one but not to leave the gate open as we did.  We scored two at home and it should have been enough to win the game.”

Rovers face Bohemians in Tallaght on Monday in the Airtricity League before crossing the Liffey next Friday for the FAI Cup quarter final where they will face Shels again.  The teams are be pretty familiar with each other as next week’s game will be the fifth match against each other this season.  Kenny knows what to expect and what is required of the team he selects next week.

“We know there is going to be a lot of long throws and free kicks into the box.  We are going to have to deal with all of that and defend well.  It is a different game as cup football is different.  Shels will be fired up for that.  It is up to us to break them down and up to us to defend better.”