Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson was thrilled to see his team kick start their season with a 6-1 demolition of Wexford FC. On a very wet and boggy St. Colman’s Park, Ramblers were ruthless throughout showing a hunger that has been lacking in
Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson was thrilled to see his team kick start their season with a 6-1 demolition of Wexford FC.
On a very wet and boggy St. Colman’s Park, Ramblers were ruthless throughout showing a hunger that has been lacking in their first two games. First half goals from Jaze Kabia (2) and Charlie Lyons had the home team comfortably ahead at the break.
An unfortunate OG by Wexford captain Owen McCormack got Wexford off to the worst possible start to the second half. To their credit, the visitors pulled one back from the penalty spot through Jack Doherty but it was Ramblers who had the final say through Cian Leonard and man of the match Stephen Kenny. Manager Henderson was pleased to see his side improve from last week’s defeat to Athlone.
“It was a very good night at the office. I think last week we asked was there any heroes that would put themselves on the end of crosses that went into the box. Tonight, we had people falling over themselves to do that, so they answered that question for me. I’m thrilled for them because it was a slow start for us with those two defeats. To come out and score six goals is great but there is always that small element of disappointment to concede a penalty. Apart from that, the players were fabulous, they worked hard on a difficult pitch and got their reward.”
“We went with the same team as last week. We didn’t win that match and that was disappointing. We worked on stuff with that group and tried to fix what happened against Athlone. We told them if they fix their mistakes then there will be improvements. If not, then there are players there ready to step in. There is a real healthy competition for places. The lads that didn’t start tonight know that they’ll get their opportunity.”
“We looked at our shape last week and our pressing didn’t work. We rarely look at the other team. Tonight, showed that we fixed our issues of last week so that’s great. We attacked crosses all night. We have a way of playing and there are only so many adjustments we can make. Ultimately it is down to the players to do their job and they were terrific this evening.”
Henderson was full of praise for all his players but was cautious not to get too carried away with the victory.
“Our expectations must be the next game. We are coming up against too many clubs with too much money so we will just focus on one game at a time. We haven’t set any targets and said this is where we’d like to finish. We are just going to go out and play our game and see where it takes us.”
“Confidence is really important. We’ve had it in the past where we’ve gone out and won well and come back too cocky and then got hammered in the next game, so we have to stay grounded. We need to work hard now again in training this week and get ourselves ready for two tough games against Limerick. We take the positives out of tonight, move on and focus on the next game.”
“I think Stephen Kenny deserves a bit of special praise for his performance tonight. That’s the best I’ve seen him play in years. Some of his play was mesmerising and the quality of his crosses into the box was fantastic. I know every manager dreams of it, but if we can get all our players playing to their potential then we have a great chance of having a say in this league.”
