Russell - We'll dust ourselves down & try learn from it

Limerick manager Martin Russell says his players will “dust themselves down and try to learn” from their loss at Galway United on Friday night, ahead of back-to-back home matches in the coming week.

The Shannonsiders went down to a 3-2 defeat at Eamonn Deacy Park, with Enda Curran completing a brace and Gary Shanahan scoring in the final quarter-hour to seal victory.

Limerick’s replies came through Kevin Garcia’s own-goal and Vinny Faherty’s late header, but they were unable to force an even later equaliser as Galway moved clear of them at the bottom of the Premier Division table.

Russell was disappointed with his team’s display in the opening half but felt they improved after the break, and he questioned the call which led to Galway’s second on 76 minutes, which he felt was a “big swing” for the hosts.

“I thought again we were poor in the first half. We didn’t pass the ball well enough. In the second half we came out, looked a bit better, began to pass in some way but still not as much as I’d like,” Russell told LimerickFC.ie.

“Having said that, we’ve shown character to bounce back from a goal behind. Then the referee, for some reason, gives a corner-kick that is never a corner-kick. We haven’t dealt with it but it should never have been one in the first place. That has gone against us and that was a big swing for them.

“But we still recognise and acknowledge that we need to keep on pushing. You come away from home, you score two goals and you still don’t get anything from the game. We know there is still work ahead.”

Limerick gave up a number of chances to the home side on the night but Russell says that was in part due to him encouraging an attacking threat from his players.

“You want to be as solid as you can but you want to be not so solid that you don’t do anything going the other way,” he said. “It’s having the balance of both – being able to attack and defend at the right times. That is something that’s an ongoing thing.

“Going forward, we scored two, but defensively we’ve leaked. Do you sacrifice even more going forward? I think you’ve just got to encourage both facets of the game – attack as a team, defend as a team, and do better.
 

“They’re always going to be difficult games, especially when you come away from home in the league. We have to play everybody at least twice; some teams we still have three games to go against them.
 

“There are loads of games left. We want to now concentrate on the next home game and try to get something from that. We’ve got two home games in the space of a week.
 

“We’ll dust ourselves down, we’ll try to learn from it and encourage even better standards. It’s an ongoing process at the moment, so we have to work through it and come out the other side.”
 

Russell says “the right ones” will want to pick themselves them up for Monday’s visit of Derry City to Jackman Park (kick-off 7.45pm), ahead of welcoming Shamrock Rovers next Saturday (kick-off 6.30pm).
 

“The right ones will get their reward. I think we’ve got a fair amount of right ones. We still obviously need support,” the 47-year-old said.
 

“But the ones that want to and do value playing at the highest level in the game should relish Monday night and look forward to doing as well as they can against Derry. We’ll be encouraging the right ones to do that.
 

“It’s competitive all the way through the league. Even Galway last week should have got something against Sligo. I don’t think there are any easy games, particularly for the likes of ourselves and the nature of what we have at the moment.
 

“We have to really play well to get anything from them. That’s where it’s at and that is what we’ve got to focus on – playing as well as we can and getting the rub of the green at times, which you need.”
 

Young centre-half Paudie O’Connor was replaced in the starting lineup on Friday by Tony Whitehead, but Russell revealed that the 17-year-old was rested.
 

“With young players, with the way the squad is, we’ve been going to the well a bit too much maybe with Paudie,” Martin said. “Tony had his chance and did okay in parts of it.
 

“We’ve got some young players that can come in from time-to-time. But as you saw again, the league is competitive and to make a real impact we need to keep on encouraging each other to do the right thing going forward.”