Dunne sickened by late concession

Speaking immediately following Cork City’s 1-1 draw with Shelbourne at Turner’s Cross, home manager Tommy Dunne was in a despondent mood at the concession of the last minute equaliser, saying that he needed a pick-me-up just as much as the players.

Shelbourne substitute Darren Tinnelly struck in the 94^th minute with a dramatic equaliser with what was literally the last kick of the game  to leave Dunne and his team ruing two points dropped.

“They’re devastated inside of course. Once again we failed to win a game where we created the most chances. I thought we were by far the better team on the night, but when you don’t take your chances you will rue them at some stage.

“Any team is going to get an opportunity in a game, but for me it’s the decisions that are made at certain times are what’s cost us. 30 seconds prior to it [the equalising goal], the ball rolled into the corner and the game was over. Simple as that. We can’t make that decision, because we want to have our little cameo and throw our leg over things.

“Tonight, so many times, if we had taken the simple option the game would have been over. I’m sick of it now, and if we carry on like this we’re going to be conceding games, conceding chances, conceding points.

“You can talk about frustration, but I don’t think that actually explains it, because for me what we’re doing is bordering on stupidity. Not concentrating – it’s just the wrong decisions at the wrong times that are absolutely killing us.”

A big feature of the game on Friday night was the awful condition of the playing surface, but the City boss insisted that it had nothing to do with the eventual result.

“You can’t go down the road of criticising the pitch. It’s the same for them as it is for us, we try to play when we get a chance to play, but it caused problems. We don’t want to make excuses, that’s not the reason why we didn’t pick up three points tonight.”

Questions will quite rightly be asked about the manner of the defeat, in the way the goal was conceded. The hosts had dominated virtually every blade of grass for the whole 90 minutes, but once again they blew the lead in the dying seconds.

“What has generally happened recently against Shamrock Rovers twice, it’s happened here, it’s happened in Drogheda, what they do is – they get the ball and it goes whack up the pitch. We’ve two choices, either we say ‘close the ball down and stand up’, but it’s going to be kicked up the pitch anyway.

“You see it in the top teams, like Barcelona getting through the Champions League, it’s about being able to defend it [the lead]. When the ball comes into the box you head it straight back out, because they’re going to kick it long, and if you can’t defend it properly, you will concede.”

Concerns will also be turned to the mental state of the Cork players, especially ahead of a crucial second leg clash with Shamrock Rovers in the semi-final of the Setanta Cup on Monday night.

“From now on, when any teams come to us they’ll say – ‘oh, we’ll get a chance at the death’. It’s something we have to eradicate, but two things tonight – that we didn’t take our chances and made the wrong decisions - have cost us three points.”