Taylor: I'm very proud of my players

Following their 2-1 loss at the hands of Sligo Rovers on Saturday night, Limerick manager Stuart Taylor was beaming with pride after his side’s fighting performance.

The Blues dominated proceedings for a small period during the game, in which they scored through Craig Curran. Sligo Rovers pulled one back just before half-time, though, and got the winner minutes before the end.

Taylor was proud of the way his team went at the champions, and said they need to be bold enough to get over the loss: “We have got to be brave enough and strong enough to get over that. I was proud of my players. I don’t think many teams have been able to come up to Sligo and play them like we did.

“We actually went at Sligo and I think that before the season actually started we went and played football, and played the way that we believe we’re good at and try to get the respect of people, and hopefully we’ve done that.”

In the dying seconds, Limerick felt they should have had a penalty when Danny Galbraith went down in the box, but the referee thought otherwise. ‘Keeper Barry Ryan was sent off after the final whistle for confronting the referee. The former St. Mirren man refused to criticise the referee: “I’m disappointed. I’ve been told by every Sligo player who came to me after the game that it was a penalty but I can’t make a comment on that. I hope you can look at it that way.

“Then obviously we go and get our player sent off after the game for the penalty incident. We have to go pick up the pieces on that and that’s the decision the referee has made. Without the referee we wouldn’t have football games. “

Although they left the North-West with no points, a strong performance from his men left Stuart Taylor very positive: “We got a goal in the first-half. We had chances throughout the game, could’ve gone a second goal up in the first-half. I think the cutting edge was there. I think the quality in the final third was there.

“I think the quality was there all over the pitch in terms of passing styles and parts of play. In the second half as well we got ourselves in the final third on quite a few occasions and we could’ve been in a different situation. We could’ve got a point, unfortunately we didn’t get that. We’ll just have to dust ourselves down and pick ourselves up for the next game.”

The visitors’ midfield looked to be switching around throughout the game, and Taylor flashed a coy grin when asked about it. Both teams displayed good football, although strong winds threatened to ruin the tempo. The 38-year-old was satisfied with his side’s movement: “There was good movement in our midfield and there was good movement all around. Sligo have good movement as well. I thought it was a good game tonight, good football at times.

“Pity the wind went and spoiled a little bit of it in terms of the way both teams were passing it. They played extremely well and I’m very proud of them.”

Overall, things are going well for the Scottish man, and he’s enjoying his time in the League of Ireland: “I’m loving it. Loving every single minute of it, loving my players and loving my time in Limerick. I’ve told my players that if they keep doing what they’re doing, they’ll win more games than they lose, and they’ll win more games than they draw. They just need to keep doing what they’re doing and keep progressing the way they’re progressing.”

Enter our competition to win one of five copies of Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel