Saints boss Stephen O'Donnell rues Dublin Derby defeat away to Shelbourne

Brendan Graham reports from Tolka Park

Last night’s match in Tolka Park didn’t disappoint in terms of everything a derby match experience should bring.

A packed stadium illuminated by the red light of Shelbourne in the minutes prior to kick-off. Crunching tackles from the referee’s first whistle. A goal. A controversial sending off and most importantly plenty of talking points and varying opinions after the game.

At times, a glance at a score line can be misleading in terms of how a match actually played out with reports often referencing how a score line may have flattered the winning team.

On this occasion however the narrow 1-0 victory for the hosts was exactly that. A fiercely contested battle and a night with very little room for flicks and tricks. One that was always going to be settled by the smallest of margins.

That honour fell to Jaze Kabia last night who managed to shake off the close attention of Ian Bermingham early in the game and power home the only goal of the night in a 1-0 victory for Shelbourne.

Despite a second loss from the opening three league games, St. Pats manager Stephen O’Donnell was encouraged by his sides display in spells throughout the game but admitted their final third needs focus and attention.

An area he believes they are not too far away in but one which is impacting heavily on their season so far.

“Yeah I thought, Dublin derby, first fifteen to twenty minutes were helter skelter” reflected O’Donnell after the game.

“It was real end to end and then we conceded a corner and gave a really cheap goal away.

“If you give a team something to hang on to, they are going to be that extra bit motivated so that for me was disappointing.”

Despite conceding early on, St. Pats responded brilliantly to the setback and showed great character and spirit to get themselves back into the game in what was a real hostile derby atmosphere.

Away from home and conceding an early goal in a derby can be a difficult situation to find yourself in. In terms of pressure, intensity and possession of the ball for the remainder of the half, St. Pats came out well on top to their credit.

“I thought we got a foot hold then for the last twenty minutes of the first half and we were dominating the game. We started the second half a bit flat again but then again took real control but at the end of the day that’s two games we’ve lost out of three. In each of the games I’ve felt we’ve dominated and gone on to concede two very soft goals leading to defeats which is disappointing.”

“As I said you afford an opportunity to a team to defend a lead on a pitch that’s not great and they are going to defend deep, it’s very hard to carve them type of teams open.

“We got in some very good areas and I thought we could have capitalised more on it. It was just the final pass that let us down quite a bit. You are going to get four or five good opportunities in most games and our final pass really let us down tonight. There were instances where we were two v one and just had to play the pass through and we ended up over hitting a couple of them.

“You have to deal with the conditions and the weather though and the pitches not being great. You just need to make sure you don’t concede soft goals and then give them something to hold onto in those conditions.”

As well as the need to focus on his own side’s end product this week in training, O’Donnell took the chance after the game to question the referees final calls at times and feels something needs to be done about it.

When asked about the oppositions slight edge in terms of the physical battles on the night O’Donnell leaned towards the referees decision making at times.

“I think they were let away with more if you want to say that and just leave it like that” said O’Donnell.

“That’s the second time we’ve had that referee in the first three weeks and I don’t think we’ve had a decision off him yet so it’s something we are going to have to look at and see what action we take.

“Everyone could see the sending off was very harsh but I’m not surprised. I don’t know what you can do in terms of action but there has to be something you can do.

“He has refereed us twice in the first three games and he hasn’t given us much. I think if you look back to both tapes the evidence will be there.”

Midfielder Robbie Benson missed out last night with no confirmed date of return just yet.

“Robbie had a little hamstring issue, we’ll see how that goes, sometimes it settles down quicker than you expect so we’ll just wait and see what happens there.”