Our 2026 European journey was ended on Thursday night as we lost one nil on the night to KuPS and 2-1 on aggregate. Did the only goal of the game typify our away form this year in Europe?
“It wasn’t our form, I thought we were good and it had nothing to do with form. It was similar to Ararat-Armenia away, it was good on the night and I thought we were very good on Thursday. It was more the goal we conceded, we can’t mistake goal and outcome with performance. The goal we gave away on Thursday typifies the type of goal we’ve given away in Europe this year. You can’t do that at any level, but especially not in Europe and that was a really poor goal.”
KuPS had several long range shots in the first half, but we seemed to be comfortably still in the game before that freak Graham Burke own goal. Football can be an unforgiving game sometimes.
“The game was exactly where we felt it would be. We felt it would go the distance in terms of extra time. But we knew we’d have to nullify their threats first as they’re good at home in what they do. I thought we did that really well, limited them to long range efforts. As the game opened up we were slightly changing it in terms of the team and tactics, then we gave away the goal which changes everything.”
You have often said in the past it’s important to not get too high after wins or too low after defeats. Is this such a situation?
“That’s why we don’t and haven’t for years. It’s never linear, there’s always ups and downs, more downs in football than anything. It’s why you have to stay as level as possible. Obviously everyone is hurting after the game, that’s quite normal. You move on, you’ve twenty four hours and then move on and that’s always been our way.”
We now begin the final quarter of the league campaign with a trip to Derry. So we must now focus all our energy on this final quarter beginning with Sunday.
“There’s no other way of doing it. Football doesn’t wait for anyone. This group has been brilliant throughout the years as I said, at moving on quickly and we’re ready to go tomorrow. We’ve nine league games to go, we’ll be ready to go for all of them, starting with Derry tomorrow.”
Tiernan Lynch left his managerial position recently at Derry, but Derry have enough good players to ensure tomorrow will be its usual difficult game at the Ryan McBride Brandywell.
“If you look at what they’ve recruited the last two years, they invested quite a lot in their squad. What you get with that is good players. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed in Derry, regardless of form, managers or anything else. Derry have good players and that doesn’t change.”
What’s our injury update for tomorrow?
“Dan Cleary and John McGovern are back available, which is great. Danny Mandroiu and Victor Ozhianvuna remain out. With Danny Grant, we are waiting on the specialist to give us an opinion on where he is. After Thursday, we’ve the usual knocks which are normal and which we’ll check on today.”
