STEPHEN KENNY SAYS he is unworried by the fact Matt Doherty said he came away “embarrassed” from tonight’s 3-0 friendly defeat at Wembley.
Doherty gave a forthright interview after the game, in which he failed to hide his frustration at the defeat, the third under Stephen Kenny’s and the fourth of five in which they have failed to score a goal.
“I feel a bit embarrassed when I come off the pitch sometimes, because we are losing games and not scoring goals, and conceding goals. It’s not nice”, said Doherty post-game.
“I felt like we kind of gave up tonight when the second goal went in tonight”, continued Doherty. “It felt like there was no way anything possibly good could happen from the game. That shouldn’t be the case, but I felt it was the case in the second half when we allowed them clip balls into players easily, and they were turning and running at us.
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“Obviously we are in transition with a new manager and young players, but we need to wake up.”
When Doherty’s thoughts were put to Kenny, the Irish manager was unconcerned.
“No, it doesn’t at all. I would have to speak to Matt but that doesn’t concern me at all. It would alarm me if he wasn’t disappointed with a 3-0. We only conceded one goal in any previous 90 minutes and that’s the first game that we haven’t really created any chances.
“There were a lot of circumstances connected to personnel that was available for that game. For us to beat England we need our absolute best team and then we would have to play really, really well to do that. Enda Stevens, John Egan and Seamus Coleman gone out of your back four to start with but I don’t want to make excuses.
“We still had a good team out. England were a step above us on the night. They are very good and a lot of players would have gained a lot of experience from that. And I learned a lot from seeing the players in that environment, individually. That was interesting.”
Matt Doherty battles with Jadon Sancho at Wembley. PA
PA
The wisdom of picking a friendly game against a side as good as England was raised post-game, to which Doherty exhaled and lamented Ireland’s current run of form.
“The way we are going, no game is easy for us at the moment. I don’t think if we chose someone else it would have been any better than us. If anything, the harder the opposition the sharper it might make us for the weekend. We will have to watch the game back and take whatever positives we can.
“Obviously I am disappointed now but we will have to recover well and make sure, come Sunday, we are up for the game and feel confident we will win.”
Seamus Coleman was due to start at Wembley, but has now been ruled out of the rest of the window through injury. James McCarthy would have played some of tonight’s game, too, but he has withdrawn from the squad for family reasons and no decision has been made about his availability for the remaining games.
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Kenny unconcerned by Doherty's 'embarrassed' reaction to England defeat
STEPHEN KENNY SAYS he is unworried by the fact Matt Doherty said he came away “embarrassed” from tonight’s 3-0 friendly defeat at Wembley.
Doherty gave a forthright interview after the game, in which he failed to hide his frustration at the defeat, the third under Stephen Kenny’s and the fourth of five in which they have failed to score a goal.
“I feel a bit embarrassed when I come off the pitch sometimes, because we are losing games and not scoring goals, and conceding goals. It’s not nice”, said Doherty post-game.
“I felt like we kind of gave up tonight when the second goal went in tonight”, continued Doherty. “It felt like there was no way anything possibly good could happen from the game. That shouldn’t be the case, but I felt it was the case in the second half when we allowed them clip balls into players easily, and they were turning and running at us.
“Obviously we are in transition with a new manager and young players, but we need to wake up.”
When Doherty’s thoughts were put to Kenny, the Irish manager was unconcerned.
“No, it doesn’t at all. I would have to speak to Matt but that doesn’t concern me at all. It would alarm me if he wasn’t disappointed with a 3-0. We only conceded one goal in any previous 90 minutes and that’s the first game that we haven’t really created any chances.
“There were a lot of circumstances connected to personnel that was available for that game. For us to beat England we need our absolute best team and then we would have to play really, really well to do that. Enda Stevens, John Egan and Seamus Coleman gone out of your back four to start with but I don’t want to make excuses.
“We still had a good team out. England were a step above us on the night. They are very good and a lot of players would have gained a lot of experience from that. And I learned a lot from seeing the players in that environment, individually. That was interesting.”
The wisdom of picking a friendly game against a side as good as England was raised post-game, to which Doherty exhaled and lamented Ireland’s current run of form.
“The way we are going, no game is easy for us at the moment. I don’t think if we chose someone else it would have been any better than us. If anything, the harder the opposition the sharper it might make us for the weekend. We will have to watch the game back and take whatever positives we can.
“Obviously I am disappointed now but we will have to recover well and make sure, come Sunday, we are up for the game and feel confident we will win.”
Seamus Coleman was due to start at Wembley, but has now been ruled out of the rest of the window through injury. James McCarthy would have played some of tonight’s game, too, but he has withdrawn from the squad for family reasons and no decision has been made about his availability for the remaining games.
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Matt Doherty Reaction Republic Of Ireland Stephen Kenny Wales