Match-winner Josh O’Hanlon spoke of his delight with scoring the decisive goal in St. Patrick’s Athletic’s 2-1 Dublin Derby win over Shamrock Rovers on Saturday. The Saints went behind to Gary Shaw’s opener before Kurtis Byrne leveled the scores, l
Match-winner Josh O’Hanlon spoke of his delight with scoring the decisive goal in St. Patrick’s Athletic’s 2-1 Dublin Derby win over Shamrock Rovers on Saturday.
The Saints went behind to Gary Shaw’s opener before Kurtis Byrne leveled the scores, leaving O’Hanlon to come off the bench and score with his first touch to clinch all three points, handing his side their first win of the season.
O’Hanlon said that manager Liam Buckley told him “now would be a good time to score” as he was getting ready to come on, and admitted he couldn’t remember what was going through his head after scoring.
“I didn’t really have time to think to be honest,” the forward confessed. “I just went into the box and first kick, first touch, and that was it.
“With the celebration, I don’t know what happened. I just lost my head I suppose, but it was a dream start and I’m delighted with it overall.”
Buckley himself spoke of his relief with Saints getting their first win of the season and subsequently leapfrogging both Sligo Rovers and Galway United, though the latter do hold a game-in-hand.
“I’m just delighted we won, first and foremost. To perform well, which we did for an hour,” Buckley said. “For the first half hour I thought Rovers were marginally on top.
“They were route one, banging it long, and it was causing us some trouble. Outside of that, their general play, I thought ours was better for the hour, once that man [Sean Heaney] got sent off.
“I was just saying to the boys that we have to play like that when they have 11. If we do keep the ball better, we’ll create more chances and give ourselves a chance of winning games.”
Buckley went on to praise his match-winning substitute, O’Hanlon, who scored with his first touch within seconds of his introduction, saying he gives a lot of options to the side.
“We played two last week up front,” Buckley said. “We can play two; he does give us that option. He’s a good target man because of his height and he jumps well and heads it well, so we’ve got a few different options with him.
“He can equally play wide left. If we’re playing a wide player on the far side, he can come in for crosses or we can put him on the right if we have a winger on the left so there is plenty we can do with him.”
Conor Clancy
