STEPHEN KENNY WAS asked out straight and could only deal with the question head on.
“Are you in a relegation battle?”
The St Patrick’s Athletic boss, who has endured three defeats in five games since taking over two weeks ago, didn’t hesitate with his response.
“I wouldn’t say that, but we need to win matches. There is a lot of football to be played and we need to win matches,” he said, before the summer transfer window was brought up.
“Certainly, we need to make some changes but there won’t be radical changes in July. There has been a lot of change already, so we need to see how players go and dust ourselves down for Friday.
“It’s a big game in Drogheda in Friday. Players are obviously very disappointed. There’s a fair degree of inexperience in there and I think it’s a disappointing result, there is no doubt about it.”
The trip to Louth takes on even great significance now that Pat’s have dropped to eighth and Kevin Doherty’s side are bottom of the table, eight points adrift of the Saints who are also just a couple of wins away from possibly jumping back up to fourth spot.
But Dundalk’s 3-2 win at Richmond Park moves them off the foot for the first time since 4 March and are seven off St Pat’s who are still looking over their shoulder.
“There is a lot of work to do with this group, there has been a high turnover of players from last year, a very high turnover and some of them are still finding their feel at the club, I feel,” Kenny continued.
“Ryan McLaughlin played today, he was struggling with a hip issue. The two full backs missing are mobile, Axel Sjoberg and Anto Breslin. They provide impetus.
“Luke [Turner] is doing a good job at left back but he is really a centre back. That is only one aspect. We could have showed a better level of creativity at times than we did, we did create some openings but didn’t quite get the equaliser.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves we have to dust ourselves down for Friday.”
This was not the start to life that Kenny was hoping for in Inchicore.
Five games have been crammed into a little over two weeks since his appointment on a five-year contract on 16 May.
Back-to-back defeats at home to Derry City and Shelbourne were followed by a draw at Bohemians and win over Galway United last Friday.
This defeat halts momentum while for Jon Daly, returning to Richmond Park after his dismissal last month, a draw against Derry City was backed up with maximum points.
“The first task I set them was ‘Can we get off the bottom of the table? Can we do that as soon as possible?’ We made a point on Drogheda on Friday. We were disappointed not to get the three points but it was still a point closer to Drogheda above us and then it was about trying to back it up here which we did,” he said.
“It’s now about trying to stay off the bottom. We’ve a massive game against Shels on Friday who had no game [yesterday] so will be fully charged and ready to go.”
While Kenny spoke of finding an inexperienced dressing room that were still trying to find their feet, Daly was buoyed by the influence of veterans that also backboned the former Lilywhites’ dominant sides over the last decade – notably captain Andy Boyle and winger Daryl Horgan who started yesterday, as well as John Mountney who came off the bench and Robbie Benson who may return to fitness to feature against league leaders Shelbourne.
“He’s a proper pro, he’s one of the ones I’m talking about being a proper professional, doing everything right,” Daly said of Horgan.
“It’s great when you’re in the changing room and you’re probably not having to be the one to drive it when there’s boys like him, Mountney, Benson, Boyle, they’ve been around, they’ve got great experience and really drive the standards and show the young players what it takes to be a football player and then you’ve got the young players like [Ryan] O’Kane.
“O’Kane for me is one of the best wide players in the League, he has unbelievable talent and he’s probably been just lacking a little bit of confidence. Hopefully he’ll take great confidence in his performance as well and hopefully help the team in an attacking sense to score goals.”
Daly said he did his due diligence for a couple of days on the squad he would inherit before accepting the job and took it because he was convinced it was good enough to get out of trouble with right guidance.
Archie Davies, who he described as the best right full back in the Premier Division, is now the interest of Motherwell in Scotland and has also been targeted by domestic rivals.
“I have had calls from other clubs in the League looking to get him, offering little deals, players swapped. We are not looking to lose Archie,” Daly said.
Some things, though, may be out of his control in his bid for survival.
