‘It was a long time coming’
THERE was a wry smile on Gary Cronin’s face after the final whistle on Monday. He was ready to celebrate a draw before John Sullivan hijacked that and handed his manager a maiden victory.
A victory in any circumstances would have been welcomed with open arms by the Dubliner but to snatch it so late - and especially after the misery of Friday - it was all the sweeter for the ex-left back.
‘It was a long time coming! I’m not saying we should have won other games but we’ve been very competitive in a lot of other games.
‘After Friday night and how poor we were - it’s the worst we’ve been - the manner in which we conceded the goals (was not good enough) and everyone knew it wasn’t good enough. Albeit we are relegated, our objective since the Limerick game was to stop the losing streak. We wanted to stop it and thankfully it was the win which is even more pleasing than a draw; it’s a monkey off the back. We’ve come in and lost all our games so to get a win is good for the group.
‘It happens(late goals) enough against you in your football career so when it goes for you it’s fantastic. The lads deserved it on Monday. They worked their socks off. The performance was a total contrast to Friday but they knew it had to be. We met at training on Sunday and we went through a few things about Monday and I’m delighted for the guys to get the win.’
The dressing room at half time on Friday - when Bray were trailing 0-4 and Cronin was hooking three players to post-match on Friday were a stark contrast but Cronin feels it was a necessary step in the circumstances.
‘It’s one of those things; it’s not like we were losing 0-1 or 0-2. We were bleeding heavily and we had to stop it. There could’ve been six or seven changes - the confidence in the team was rocked. I had to make the changes. We were all a bit emotional after the first half but we had to make the changes because we had to stop what was happening and we couldn’t allow it to turn into a rout. ‘
While Cronin was delighted with his team’s efforts on Monday, he admits that the nature of the beast means that their performance may now have put them in the shop window.
‘You look at games like tonight and there’s people here watching. There was managers here to watch players from both sides and that’s the nature of League of Ireland football; the majority of those players out there tonight are free at the end of the season. ‘