Sunday’s match in Eamon Deacy Park kicks off at 5pm. Live stream available on LOITV.

We went down to a 1-0 UEFA Conference League 3rd qualifying round first leg defeat away to FK Ballkani on Thursday night. Having reviewed the game, are you still disappointed at our overall levels, that resulted in us losing by that solitary goal?

“We’ve obviously reviewed the game as a group and what we felt after the game is what the numbers tell us, which is we were really far off our levels, in every department. As a result, you obviously don’t perform if you’re that far off in each department. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to go and perform, so I was frustrated and disappointed with our levels.”

Despite that, did our European experience help us remain calm after conceding a poor goal from our point of view in terms of making sure we didn’t concede a crucial second goal and keeping us very much in the tie for next week’s second leg?

“That’s where the players deserve tremendous credit. There will be times when you’re not at your best and that’s life, that’s football, and it happens. But the players showed tremendous character, grit and togetherness, and that experience and know-how to just stay in the fight and, in the game. And they did that really well and deserve tremendous credit for that. We were that far off and it’s only 1-0 and you take that when you have a game like that and we take them back to Tallaght.”

While we need to now focus on tomorrow’s game against Galway United, was there a mood or sense of frustration in the group that we can and will show Ballkani our ‘A’ game in the second leg?

“The players know. As I’ve said many a time, I don’t need to lecture them. These are top players, the best around, who’ve performed at the top level for a long time. They know when we’ve been good and when we haven’t. So, as a group, we were really frustrated about why it happened. But we’ll be fine, all we can do is learn from it and move on, that’s what we’ll do and make sure we put it right in Galway tomorrow.”

So we’re back to league action tomorrow.  This game marks the three quarter point of the season and it’s a tricky assignment in Galway, despite our excellent record in recent years at Eamonn Deacy Park.

“Yes, it is. All of our games against Galway this year have been really close. The last game with them in Tallaght was 0-0 and Galway will feel they had chances to win the game. It has always been tight against them and I expect tomorrow to be no different. A few of Galway’s key players are back from injury which obviously will help them. So, tomorrow is a tough game.”

As you said above, we couldn’t break down a resolute Galway team last time we met in Tallaght with that scoreless draw. Despite Galway’s difficult run of results recently, do you expect them to be set up as we’ve seen for a while now under John Caulfield?

“Galway are very good at what they do. They’ve been unfortunate this year with injuries at key moments in the season. There have been games they’ve lost by the odd goal, which can often skew what your league position looks like. But they’re very good at what they do, any game we’ve had has been really close and difficult and we’re under no illusions that it will be the exact same tomorrow.”

Was there a result on Aaron McEneff’s scan and are any of those who’ve been absent recently available for Galway tomorrow?

“It was a good decision from Aaron to come out when he did. It’s not bad, I would imagine he’d be back for the FAI cup game with Longford, if not, definitely the week after. We need to check on Graham Burke today, his isn’t too bad, we’re hoping if he’s not ok for tomorrow, and most definitely for the second leg with Ballkani on Thursday.”