AIRTRICITY FIRST DIVISION
O’Connor disappointed with Ramblers’ collapse
Daire Walsh
COBH RAMBLERS endured a frustrating evening in Belfield last Friday, when UCD were 3-0 victors in the SSE Airtricity League First Division.
This was the ninth league defeat of the current campaign for the Leesiders and considering how well they had performed in the opening period of the action, Cobh midfielder Shane O’Connor was understandably disappointed to come out on the wrong end of the result.
” I thought we’d done really well in the first half particularly. We frustrated them, that was our game plan.
Concede
“To frustrate them, not to concede. Get in at half-time still in the game, and in the second half maybe catch them on the counter attack. Which I believe we were doing quite well,” O’Connor stated.
“It’s frustrating. If you give away the goals we give away, it’s hard for us to win games. We’re always having to score two or three just to win a game. Overall, we’re disappointed, but there are still some positives to take out of it.”
Robbie Benson had broken the Cobh resistance with a goal in the 50th minute, and this proved to be the catalyst for their win on the night. Yet, O’Connor felt that the visitors were still in contention after this opener, and it wasn’t until Ryan Swan doubled his side’s advantage 14 minutes later that the game was placed beyond their reach.
“Even when it was 1-0, I felt we could get back in the game.
“We’ve gone down 1-0 to them before and we’ve come back, so I felt we could catch them on the counter attack.
“We have fast lads on the wings that can get the ball in for us, but the second goal was a bit of a sucker punch to be honest.
“They controlled the game after the second goal. We never looked likely to get back in it.”