General
- Monday June 5th, 2017 @ 17:30
Liam Buckley Interview: "We Need To Put A Run Of Wins Together"
St Patrick's Athletic Manager Liam Buckley knows his team need to improve heading into the second period of the season.
He hopes to carry the positive signs from the 1-1 draw against Shamrock Rovers last Friday, particularly in the second-half, into the games after the summer break, which begin with a home fixture against Bohemians on Friday June 16th.
Liam has been speaking to StPatsFC.Com about that game, and the season overall.
He began by reflecting on that point in Tallaght thanks to Christy Fagan's second-half equaliser.
"We played reasonably well at Shamrock Rovers, certainly in the second half. If that could be our standard from now until the end of the season, we'll be OK."
"The first half was 50/50 with both teams having chances to score, we could have gone in 1-1 at the break having let in a poor goal, but the boys re-grouped well."
Confidence
"We played with a really good intensity in the second half, roared on by our fans and Christy scored an excellent equaliser, we really could have won the game given the possession and the chances we had."
"If we can get a bit of confidence from that performance and carry that into the second period of the season, we'll hopefully improve our league position."
The Manager says despite picking up just 15 points from the 17 games so far, there has not been a lot in many of the matches.
"There's not an awful lot between the likes of Rovers and ourselves, that's for sure. Outside of Cork, who've ran amok this year, and Dundalk, there's very little between everybody else."
"We've played Derry, a really top footballing side who get it down and play and pass the ball really well and picked up a point in that game and we had really good wins over Rovers, Drogheda and Bohs, there's very little between the rest of us bar the top two."
"Just six points separate Galway who are just below us and Bohemians in 7th, so we know a couple of wins in a row could really bounce us up the table, we've not been able to do that so far this season, so it's definitely an area we need to address."
Improve
He admits that the league position (second from bottom), does need to be improved.
"League tables don't lie, we are there towards the bottom because of our form, which has not been good enough over the 17 matches so far and we know we all need to be better."
"That was an improved performance on Friday night, we'll need more of that, starting on Friday week."
"If we can play like we played against Shamrock Rovers for the rest of the season, we'll pick up more points than we did in the first half."
Win
Saints best performance of the season so far came in the 4-0 win over Bohemians at Dalymount Park in March, when Conan Byrne scored THAT goal.
Liam is looking forward to the game and hoping for a repeat performance.
"We played very well in the game in Dalymount and were deserved winners. Yes Conan scored that goal, but overall we played well, Kurtis Byrne also scored a cracker and Christy was on the score sheet too.ÃÆ'¢â‚¬ÂÂÂ
"Bohemians have picked up their own form in recent weeks with good wins over Galway and Bray, they are five points ahead of us in what is a very tight league table, so weÃÆ'¢â‚¬â„¢ll be looking to play well in that game and pick up the three points to get closer to them and the teams ahead of us."
Window
So will Liam add to his squad during the July transfer window?
"We'll have a look and see what's available and see what we can do. One or two from our group may want to go to get games and all that sort of stuff."
"It's a funny old time of the season, the break, but we'll have a look and see if there's anything we can do."
"We've only got six defenders in the whole group so that is an area we'll look at to see if we can bring in some bodies to strengthen that up."
Like much of the League of Ireland, the players flew off on a week's holiday on Saturday, they'll be back on the training pitch in ALSAA at the weekend, as preparations continue for the Bohs game.
"The lads will have a few days off now to freshen themselves up and we'll be back in training at the weekend to prepare for a Dublin derby against Bohemians, which we are all looking forward to."
St Patrick's Athletic vs Bohemians kicks off at 7.45pm on Friday June 16th at Richmond Park.
