Wixted stresses positives ahead of the play-offs
ADAM Wixted tried to remain positive after Shelbourne were crowned First Division champions with victory in United Park and insisted Drogheda’s promotion charge is still alive and kicking.
‘After we let out our frustration out in the dressing-room and got everything out in the air, we settled down a bit,’ he said as he prepared to depart United Park late on Friday night.
‘It’s not the end of the world actually. We have another game to go and we can get second place hopefully and we’re still in the play-offs, with a good chance of going up.
‘The dressing-room was down, but you could see the switch-around in the players’ faces [after a while]. I don’t think it’ll hard to get us motivated again. We’ll be back on the pitch on Monday, put it behind us, dust ourselves off and get going again.’
Wixted felt Sean Brennan’s red card was the pivotal moment, whether or not the Rathmullen man deserved it.
‘You could say the sending-off changed the game and that it ruined the game a little. I don’t know myself if it was a sending-off or not - I couldn’t really see from where I was.
‘It did change the game and we went 1-0 down, but when we got the goal back our tails were up and I felt we could have got a second, but obviously we conceded again after that.
‘Even after we went down to 10 men we still felt we had a chance. We were great going forward and gave it our all, but on the night we were unlucky I suppose.’
With the play-offs to come after this Saturday’s final league game in Bray, Wixted could find himself in the starting line-up for the first time since February, after recovering from a dislocated shoulder.
‘It’s no consolation, but it’s more time for me to play,’ he agreed.
‘I’m still not fit enough really for 90 minutes, but I will be 100% come the play-offs and there’s still a lot to play for and it’s not over yet.
‘It’s an advantage finishing second, but there’s no harm finishing third either because we have more games to play. If we finish second you are waiting around longer for the play-off games to come around.
‘Either way I don’t think it affects us and we’re good enough to go and do the job.’