O’Connor unhappy at goal lapses
SOCCER
Daire Walsh
DESPITE getting his name on the scoresheet at Belfield last Friday evening in the SSE Airtricity League First Division, Cobh Ramblers captain Shane O’Connor was left disappointed by the manner of his side’s 3-1 defeat to UCD.
Cobb were still in contention at the end of a scoreless first-half, but as O’Connor explains, their habit of conceding goals in short periods of play re-emerged on the resumption.
“We seem to have this habit sometimes of conceding a few goals in a short space of time, and it came back to haunt us a little bit there.
“It was very disappointing to concede the three goals the way we did.
“They were poor goals from our perspective, but fair play to UCD for taking advantage of it,” O’Connor remarked.
The former Ipswich Town midfielder did grab a consolation for the visitors from the penalty spot in the 83rd-minute, but even though he was pleased to have taken his chance after an earlier miss against Shelbourne this season, he wad disappointed that it had little impact on the end result.
“I missed one against Shels. It was a poor penalty to be honest. To be fair, I was lucky I have a few goals behind me, and I was able to score that one.
“It was a bit disappointing that it kind of didn’t really matter in the end at 3-0. It was more the result was disappointing.”
Before the upcoming mid-season break, Cobh will have three very important games – starting with next Saturday’s FAI Cup second round encounter with Cherry Orchard.
They will also face Waterford United and Cabinteely in the league, and considering how tight it is in the second-tier, O’Connor knows that they can’t afford any slips in these fixtures.
“I’m sure there was someone here from Cherry Orchard.
“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t put on that display that we did in the second-half there against them next week.
“Then we face the two games before the break and that will be absolutely vital for us.
“We managed to bounce back from a disappointing little three games last time in the same series, and we really need to do that again now.
“You win a couple of games and all of sudden you go from sixth to second, bar Limerick. They’re massive for us them games.
“We need to bring up six points from them games, and make sure we go into the break sitting a little bit prettier in the league.
“And hopefully we can put a gap between us and fourth,” O’Connor added.