Buckley: We need to pick ourselves up as quickly as we can

Richmond Park was left stunned and deflated last Friday night. Having watched their team go 1-0 up, Saints fans then saw three goals without reply from Tommy Dunne’s Galway United with the visitors departing Inchicore with all three points on a bitterly disappointing opening game for the hosts.

Speaking after the game St. Pat’s boss Liam Buckley conceded that Galway were worthy winners on a night when his players simply did not meet his standards. “We’ll be disappointed. We didn’t play well enough or anywhere near it”, he said speaking to Extratime.ie after the final whistle.

Optimism and excitement was free-flowing in the build-up to the first match of the new 2016 SSE Airtricity League campaign following a gruelling four month break. Four of St. Pats’ nine new signings made the starting XI as the club made the first step into its new transition.

Friday’s game began brightly and with an all too familiar name on the scoresheet, as Billy Dennehy set up Christy Fagan to glance a well-timed header into Conor Winn’s far corner to take the lead early in the second half.

However three unanswered goals were scored by United following a desperate period of suspect defending from the Saints. First Vinny Faherty coasted through an absent St. Pat’s defence from a throw-in to slip the equalizer past Brendan Clarke.

John Sullivan then gave the Tribesmen the lead with a gifted free header inside the area before substitute Enda Curran capped a miserable night for the Saints with a stunning curled effort into the far corner in stoppage time.

 “I thought we were marginally better in the first half but certainly in the second half we were no-where near where I would expect us to be. We need to pick ourselves up and organise as quickly as we can.”

In addition to the new signings in the starting team, Dinny Corcoran and Mark Timlin also came on as on second-half substitutes to bring the total number of new deputants for St. Pats to six. Buckley quick to defend the performances of his new recruits on a night in which few of his players would take praises.

“It’s not about pointing fingers at any one individual. As a team we played poorly in the second half. We didn’t link it in well enough and we didn’t create enough chances – albeit at 1-0 we had a great chance from Christy Fagan which produced a world-class save from Conor Winn; but generally our play wasn’t good enough and we have to address that.”

A spark of promise came forth from the darkness of this opening night defeat as striker Christy Fagan scored on his first game back to full-fitness following an injury plagued 2015 which saw the forward score seven goals.

“Christy basically missed all of last season and it was great just to get him back in the team”, added Buckley. “I’m delighted he scored his goal. For now we just need to sharpen him up and make sure he gets a few more chances in the games to come.”

The Saints make the trip to City Calling Stadium this Friday where they will play Tony Cousins’ Longford Town. St. Pat’s beat Longford twice out of three meetings in 2015, with the side’s last meeting at City Calling Stadium producing a 3-0 win for the Dublin side.

The opener was scored that night from said mentioned Christy Fagan, with his manager not taking this game for granted in light of their opening day loss.

“Longford will be a difficult place to go. There are no easy games in our league so we’ll just have to go up there on Friday and try to get a result.”