Henderson rues Cobh mistakes against Shelbourne
MATCH REACTION
Daire Walsh
AFTER his side suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Shelbourne at Tolka Park last night, Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson admitted that the passing and decision-making of his charges wasn’t up to the standard required.
While Henderson was quick to identify the honesty and work ethic of the young Ramblers squad, he accepted that they were punished for the mistakes they made in the First Division clash.
“We’re a very hard-working side, we’re a very honest side. We worked hard for each other. No matter, in football if you can’t pass the ball five or 10 yards, and your decision-making on the pass the ball – If that’s not right, no matter how organised you are, you’re going to lose the game,” Henderson remarked.
“They deserved the game tonight. I don’t think they were great either, but we made more mistakes than them basically. They punished us and they fully deserved their win.”
This loss meant that fourth-place Cobh missed out on an opportunity to climb up the second-tier table, but with little to separate the teams below divisional pace-setters Limerick, Henderson is eagerly looking forward to next Saturday’s encounter with Drogheda United.
“In this league, you can find yourself in the play-off spots, and then all of a sudden you find yourself in the bottom two. That’s just the way it goes. We’re still in it. We have Drogheda next week, and we’ll be having a right rattle off them next week. I can assure you.”
Henderson made headlines in the wake of the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2016 exit to France, after he raised several issues about the state of the domestic league on Twitter.
Henderson revealed that the circumstances of last weekend’s away victory over Athlone Town had left him frustrated, and while he stated that he probably shouldn’t have gone down this particular road, he feels his comments were generally quite constructive.
“You have to understand, when you’re in the game. I’m involved in League of Ireland football over 30 years now, as a player, a coach and a manager. What happened up in Athlone? I’m a manager, and I have to pay thousands of euros to coach in this league, and yet I go up to a ground and I don’t know who I’m playing against.
“It was heartbreaking. I got a little bit frustrated. It wasn’t a rant of stuff, I think I was constructive in most of the things I said. I was literally just sitting down in a dark corner on my own fuming. I probably shouldn’t have done it,” Henderson added.