Kick-off in the Showgrounds is at 7.45pm on Friday. Coverage on LOITV
Looking back on last Friday’s game against Galway, what are your views on that?
“I was really happy with the win, disappointed with the Galway giveaway late on. I know Ed’s really annoyed by that. But Galway, as I said before the game, they create chances, and they’re difficult to play against. We saw that in the second half, they had a number of opportunities and Ed had to make a brilliant save as well to stop them scoring early. So, yeah, really happy with the win overall.”
Everyone is talking about Adam Brennan; you must be very pleased with Adam’s performances?
“Yeah, I think he started the season really well. Obviously, he picked up the knock and it took him a bit of time to get going again in terms of you could see the last few weeks there’s been glimpses of it. But on Friday, he looked back to himself in terms of how aggressive he was in his play and how fit he looked, which was really pleasing. We know Adam is a really, really good player, a top young player, but we also know there’s a lot of development still there for him. He’s got a really high ceiling and it’s good to see him getting back to his level.”
And a deserved Man of the Match award also?
“It was well deserved. I thought he was excellent, he created too and showed real maturity in his play which was nice to see.”
You must have been pleased too with Tuesday’s performance in the friendly against Hibs?
“Really happy, we had a really young team out. But I think sometimes people can be surprised by the performance and we’re not. The young players are training with us every day obviously, and we know they’ve got real quality. That’s where they work every day and that’s where they’re pushing to play in this team and where a lot of them have played in the team and will continue to. So, the performance was good, but doesn’t surprise us. We’ve got some really good young players here.”
Now there are huge games coming up in the next eight days, starting with tomorrow against Sligo.
“Sligo obviously beat us last time out, so we know it’s a difficult game. It’s important that we’re fully focused on the challenge that Sligo are going to bring us. They beat us recently, so it’s obviously something we’d have to look at, which we did and learn from and understand what happened. But it just shows, and I’ve said it all season and maybe sound like a broken record, if you’re not at your levels in this league, you get beat and that’s true in any game.”
Where does the group stand this week with injuries?
“Dan Cleary is probably a week, maybe ten days away. He’s doing well. Danny Mandroiu has been excellent, we’re just waiting for clearance for him from the docs. Danny Grant and Victor (Ozhianvuna) will miss Sligo and Europe, both of them. Other than that, everyone else is okay.”
