Maciej Tarnogrodzki couldn't have wished for a better start to life in the big job at Belfield. A tumultuous period at the south Dublin club had culminated in them being beaten 10-1 by Bohemians in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, and sli
Maciej Tarnogrodzki couldn't have wished for a better start to life in the big job at Belfield.
A tumultuous period at the south Dublin club had culminated in them being beaten 10-1 by Bohemians in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, and slipping six points behind Finn Harps in the race to avoid automatic relegation.
This led to the departure of Collie O'Neill, who had been associated with the Students for the previous eight years, and Tarnogrodzki's promotion to the top position on campus
He told our reporter Peter Branigan that there was no beginners luck in starting the new gig with a 3-1 Extra.ie FAI Cup win over St Patrick's Athletic.
"We had a plan" he said afterwards. "After the result last week we had to execute this plan, a bit of a defensive one. But we had plenty of chances created.
"Most of the players know me, I've coached them in the past. 70% of the full squad are my ex-players. We also put some more senior players in the team, and put some under-19s on the bench, because this was a big game, and we needed a reaction.
"The senior players responded, and did very well. I'm delighted for the team, for the boys, for the club, and for myself as well, and for the coaching staff.
"It was a brilliant performance. Based on chances, and the way we played, we fully deserved to win. They had a couple of shots from distance, half chances, but they didn't get through us on a clear-cut chance, one-v-ones.
"We had to defend at the end, but we did that."
It means the Students are into the quarter-finals for the second year running, and they'll be hoping to go one further than last season and get to the Aviva Stadium in early November.
Although a cup run would be nice, the most important thing for the Polish-native will be to try to put up a fight against an immediate return to the First Division.
With the end of the season fast approaching, and College rooted to the bottom of the table, Tarnogrodzki is realistic about his squad's chances of achieving the great escape.
"We want to stay up, but you need to take it one game at a time," he says.
"We have eight league games left. The most important thing is to come back and work hard, and to get some energy into the team. It's experience as well, I've been coaching for ten years. The majority at youth level, but I had almost two years at senior.
"It's about man management, some coaching, and then hopefully you get some results. UCD is a great club. They want everyone to work hard, and we have good quality on top of that.
"The Cup doesn't disrupt the League, so we want to win every game. It's important to keep going, we want to go all the way."
