Having just seen his injury-ravaged side take four points from their last two games after the mid-season break, a slightly frustrated Gypsies boss Keith Long spoke of his niggling disappointment at not grabbing all three points at home to fellow Euro
Having just seen his injury-ravaged side take four points from their last two games after the mid-season break, a slightly frustrated Gypsies boss Keith Long spoke of his niggling disappointment at not grabbing all three points at home to fellow European hopefuls, Derry City.
“I’m a little disappointed if I’m honest, we didn’t really create anything clear-cut or work Peter Cherrie enough. We had shots from distance fair enough but it was a little flat for me. But on reflection a draw was probably a fair result overall.”
Missing a whole host players this evening who would possibly be in with a shout of getting in the starting XI, Long did go onto add that the quick turn around from Friday’s game to tonight, coupled with the injury list maybe took its toll.
“We’re missing, including Cristian Mageruson with a long term ACL injury, I think its up to eight players, it’s a lot to manage for any squad and we have been unlucky with the injuries. The Friday – Monday games too don’t give players much recovery time if they get little bumps and bruises, but hopefully as it eases off now in the second half we’ll look to get a fully fit squad to pick from again.”
The defensive headache only worsened for the Bohs boss as Friday night’s hero, Michael Barker went off with a nasty head injury in the second half. Skipper for the evening, Darragh Leahy filled in at centre back, performing admirably and Long refused to be too down-beat when giving an update on the latest addition to his walking wounded list.
”It looked like an honest coming together and both players seemed to have eyes on the ball. But Robbie McCourt can play at centre back if we need to and at left back so we’ve got a bit of versatility throughout the squad.
"Aaron Barry has a hamstring injury and Rob Cornwall is a longer term injury but the good news is that Michael was up and about, vision is back and he’s in the dressing room chatting away now so we’ll monitor it over the week and see about Friday, but I think he may have been out for a few seconds.
“Look, we’re in a great position in the table and keep that little buffer between ourselves and them (Derry City),” he said.
Speaking on the six-point gap, and respectfully adding: “But we’ve got to commend Derry City and their players, travelled to Cork on Friday and here tonight but you don’t hear too many excuses from them to be fair, they’re a good bunch of lads and driven by Declan (Devine) who has come in and done an fantastic job.
"We’re happy we maintained the distance and would have been nicer to extend it to nine points obviously, but its not the end of the world drawing here tonight and we look ahead to Cork City away on Friday.”
