AIRTRICITY LEAGUE SOCCER – FIRST DIVISION
Hunt frustrated as Cobh squander more points
Daire Walsh
CLANE’S Paul Hunt was left frustrated at Stradbrook last Friday evening, after Cobh Ramblers fell to their third defeat in four games away to a superior Cabinteely in the SSE Airtricity League First Division.
This was also their 11th reversal of the campaign, leaving them a long way adrift of the heavy hitters in the second-tier. Following the concession of two early goals in their previous league encounter at home to Galway United, Hunt was beaten by Jack Watson and Kevin Knight in the opening-quarter on Friday.
With six league games remaining in 2018, Hunt is now hoping the squad can get back to doing what is best for the collective.
“We’re starting so poorly. We need to get our finger on it. We need to get some lads doing the job that they’re supposed to be doing and not doing what they want to do,” a disappointed Hunt stated after Friday’s game.
“It’s that simple. It’s not complicated. Boys are starting to do what they want and not what they should be for the team. We’re conceding a goal and straight away we’re conceding one or two more. You can’t do that at this level. You can’t give teams two or three goal starts, because you won’t get back in the game.”
Having challenged for promotion for two seasons running, it is proving to be an underwhelming 2018 for Ramblers. They currently lie in eighth place in the First Division table – now four points behind an ever-improving Cabinteely.
While they have struggled to develop any kind of consistency, Hunt identifies an away win over Finn Harps in mid-May as an example of what the team is capable of.
“They’ve proven in games. The hardest place to win in this league is up in Finn Harps and this group went up and they got a 1-0 win. They’re well capable and they’ve won other games that they’ve dug in. They weren’t the prettiest, but we held out.
“Believe you me, the boys will be firing, because they have to. It’s just that simple. It’s no going back now, they just have to pull the finger out. The whole lot of them.”
With a number of chances created during the course of the contest, Cobh certainly possess a considerable amount of attacking potential. If they can get a handle on the issues that are plaguing the Leesiders at the opposite end of the field, then Hunt is adamant results can start falling their way once again.
“The problem isn’t creating chances. We’ll always great chances, but the goals we’re conceding are just so soft and so avoidable. If you stay in that game and it’s 0-0, and one of them chances…they might go in or they might not, but if you don’t give away stupid goals you can’t lose.
“If you look at most of our goals this year, not too many teams have opened us up. We’ve probably handed most of our goals to teams and you can’t do that at this level,” Hunt added