Bray boss left with the bare bones
AS A banker, Alan Mathews is no stranger to the odd crisis. But the Bray Wanderers treatment room has been inundated with Seagulls stars in recent weeks, leaving the Bray boss down to the bare bones.
Injuries and results have picked up over the past couple of weeks though, and Mathews has challenged the players currently deputising for their wounded club-mates to make themselves undroppable.
The long weekend provided a point for the manager’s thoughts. Although he would never expect to win every game, that doesn’t mean that it’s not his burning ambition every time the Seagulls take to the field.
“You’re not going to get to a situation where you’re going to win every game but what you will do is you’ll make sure that you pick up points. Our performance merited three points today definitely, we were excellent from start to finish”, commented Mathews after the stalemate with Derry City.
“Unfortunately we missed a penalty but it didn’t stop us, we kept plugging away and had Derry on the back foot for most of the game. We weren’t able to finish them off but it’s a sign of where we’re at now and a sign of how we’re trying to grow this team and develop it and the players’ attitudes as well as their willingness to go and push for the result. We got a good three points last week in Drogheda, we didn’t follow it up with another three points today but we did follow it up with another excellent performance. If they keep playing well and keep making the chances, the results will ultimately start looking after themselves.
“If you don’t play and don’t play on the front foot with an attitude of trying to get three points, you’ll get turned over. The players have been excellent since we’ve come in. Their attitude has been spot on and I thought we played some good football today.”
Goalkeepers played a major part in Friday’s result. Derry’s Ger Doherty pulled off a string of superb saves, while Stephen McGuinness retained his place despite the return to the squad of Shane Redmond.
“He pulled off a couple of really good saves (Doherty). You expect your goalkeeper to do that, Stephen stepped up to the plate for us in injury time and he was very, very good. The confidence in the players is there. They’re very disappointed in there not to get three points and that’s a sign of progress.
“It’s a measure of where we’re trying to go to that week in, week out, we want to be picking up wins and if we don’t pick up wins, we pick up a draw.
“He’s (McGuinness) come in, he’s done well and he’s done nothing to warrant being left out of the side. Any player that’s in the team that’s doing their stuff, we’ll try and encourage them to keep doing their stuff by leaving them in the side. We need competition for places in all aspects of the team and if players come in and take their opportunity, they deserve to be kept in and they will.”