Buckley hails Mark Timlin impact at St Patrick’s Athletic

By Daire Walsh

The former Derry City midfielder has impressed at Richmond Park since arriving in the off-season and the Saints boss is confident in his ability

St Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley was full of praise for Mark Timlin, who was on target during his side’s 4-0 Premier Division win over Wexford Youths on Friday evening.

After seeing the energetic Donegal man also getting on the scoresheet in last Monday’s victory against Finn Harps, Buckley revealed that he has been delighted with the impact he has made since joining from Derry City in the off-season.

“Fantastic. His [Timlin’s] technique is very, very good, I have to say. He got a great goal up in Finn Harps as well, and his goal here today again,” Buckley remarked after the game.

“It was like the goal he scored against Galway in the first game of the season here. He gets in the box, but he’ll add an awful lot to the group this year.”

Despite dropping points to Galway United, Sligo Rovers and Dundalk already this term, Pat’s remain very much in the mix at the top end of the table, and Buckley believes there are few weak teams in the Airtricity League.

“In fairness, Galway took three points from us at the start of the season. They’re a decent outfit, as are Sligo and Dundalk and Derry. There’s very few weak teams in the league here.

“We’ve played Longford, who were bottom of the table, and we only beat them 1-0. There are no easy games. You can drop points left, right and centre. That’s how it has gone so far this season.”

CONFIDENCE BLOW

After their magnificent April 1 triumph at home to Bray Wanderers with a commendable 1-1 draw with Cork City last Friday, this result comes as something of a set-back for Wexford Youths.

However, the Slaneysiders will have an opportunity to bounce back against Galway United next week, and Youths boss Shane Keegan feels that his squad have the character to respond in a positive manner.

“It’s up to ourselves whether it knocks us back confidence wise or not. I’d like to think we’re made of the right stuff in the dressing room. That we analyse what went wrong tonight,” Keegan stated.

“Where we make sure that we’re very, very hard on ourselves, and we work really hard over the course of the week to fix it as quickly as possible. It would be easy to drop the head after that, but I don’t think that’s the kind of squad we have.”