Shelbourne manager Ian Morris was happy with his side’s second half performance in their 2-1 win over Athlone Town at Tolka Park on Friday night. The visitors took a 1-0 lead into the break courtesy of Dean Williams’ penalty, but Shelbourne hit back
Shelbourne manager Ian Morris was happy with his side’s second half performance in their 2-1 win over Athlone Town at Tolka Park on Friday night.
The visitors took a 1-0 lead into the break courtesy of Dean Williams’ penalty, but Shelbourne hit back with two second half strikes from Ryan Brennan and Ciaran Kilduff.
“The first half was frustrating,” Morris said after the game. “I think we expected them to step on us a little bit more, and I think our back four and the midfielders were a little bit too deep in the first half. They didn’t allow us to play further up the field and I thought our distances were too far apart. We looked at it at half-time and went through a couple of things and we bore the fruit of that in the second half with lads getting closer to each other and passing the ball better.”
Morris was also happy to see his team get their recent good form back on track following a disappointing defeat to title rivals Cabinteely in their previous game.
“Last week was a massive, massive blip where the story of the game was they scored and we didn’t but, apart from that, we have started to put a run together and be more consistent. Thankfully in the second half tonight we got back to that.”
The game could have been more comfortable for Shels had Lorcan Fitzgerald not seen had his penalty well-saved by Evan White in the 81st minute. Shortly afterwards, Morris was ordered to the stands by the referee.
“It seems like I went on this mad tirade swearing,” said Morris. “I simply spoke to the fourth official about using his earpiece and doing his job, and that’s as far as it went. I didn’t swear, nothing like that. Unfortunately, he’s taken it up the wrong way and called the referee over to send me off.”
The Drumcondra side were also hit with yet another injury after Daniel Byrne was forced to leave the pitch after just six minutes. This continued a frustrating spell of injuries for the centre back, and Morris’ update on the latest one was not good.
“It’s devastating because Dan has been working really hard. He broke his metatarsal in pre-season, managed to get himself back, got into the team and scored, done well and then he hurt his shoulder which got him out of the team. He did really well tonight but unfortunately it looks like he has done the same metatarsal, which is devastating for us and himself.”
