Henderson not happy with his side’s performance
MATCH REACTION
Daire Walsh
THANKS to a dramatic injury-time goal from centre-half Brendan Frahill, Cobh Ramblers emerged from an entertaining away fixture on Friday evening against Cabinteely FC with a point to show for their efforts.
A 2-2 draw in Stradbrook means that Cobh remain in sixth position in the SSE Airtricity League First Division, but despite being moments away from a third defeat on the bounce, Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson was not satisfied with the result on the night.
“No. I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not. Because we should have battered them. When I say that, I mean in the first half I think we created seven or eight clear-cut chances to go and have that game out of sight.
“Then we committed football suicide with the two goals we gave away,” Henderson explained.
“I thought we deserved the goal in the end, but on top of that, no we’re not delighted. We’re really disappointed we didn’t take the three points.”
The concession of two early goals meant that Cobh had to work hard in order to force their way back into contention. Henderson feels that they need to eradicate these errors from their game, but is also hoping to strike a fine balance between defence and attack.
“We’ve come on brilliantly as a defensive unit over the last few weeks, but that’s five goals in two games and they were very preventable goals.
“Now, we’re not looking at the defence. We have to look at that as a team. We were more open as a team.
“We’ve gone from sitting very deep and compact to being a bit more expansive. The consequences is that there is some very exciting games, but we’re not winning them.
“So, we have to look at it and try and get the mix of defensive qualities back into it and then our offensive qualities.”
After coming so close in their efforts to claim the scalp of Finn Harps six days earlier, the confidence of this youthful Cobh team could have been seriously affected by the shaky start to Friday’s proceedings. Yet, they really put it up to Cabinteely as the play developed, and Henderson was delighted with the way they responded in the face of adversity.
“These are young lads that are playing for us, and you’re leading Finn Harps 2-1 with five minutes to go and you lose the game 3-2. What’s the response of a young team?
“We dug in, we played some great football I think. The response was fantastic from them, and I’m gutted for them, because a last-minute equaliser was the least we deserved,” Henderson added.