The ‘maddest night’ of Ian Ryan’s career

REACTION

THERE’S a lot to be said for an old-fashioned, straight forward 1-0 win. But Ian Ryan didn’t care how his side earned the three points following a night he has labelled the craziest of his League of Ireland career.

A 30-minute delay, hailstorms, lightning, a red card and four goals in nearly as many minutes meant there was a lot to unpack on the long trip home from Tralee for the Bray Wanderers head coach.

Although he is delighted to have eventually got the win, he knows his side rode their luck at a venue where he tips many sides to struggle in 2024.

“I would say the maddest (night of my career) to be honest. The events during the game with the weather and the lightning and the game being stopped and us going back inside and then there was talk of it being abandoned altogether. Crazy night. The manner of the game itself was a bit mad – particularly those few minutes in the second half.

“Kerry should have been 2-0 up I imagine (early on). They had good chances at the very start and Jimmy pulled off a brilliant save for us.

“We were disappointed – it was a crazy night, but we didn’t really get going until we needed a bit of urgency in the second half. I thought the subs came on and gave us that.

“There was a bit of naivety to our play in how we conceded goals – the first one is a wonderful strike, and you can’t do too much about that but the second; it’s a disaster from our point of view after scoring and getting back in it and then gifting them a corner 30 seconds later and not defending it.

“That was disappointing, but you take the positives on it. We showed a bit of grit and resilience to come back and score goals. That will be a difficult place to go this season. Kerry will pick up points against teams, so it was important for us to just make sure we won the game.”

The Seagulls failed to break down 10-man UCD the week previously. And it looked like they were going to suffer the same downfall until 20 minutes from time, but Ryan wasn’t worried.

“I was confident that we’d do it, but I think we lacked a bit of penetration until the subs came in.

“We were able to get the two lads up top and we started putting crosses into the box and balls into the box whereas beforehand; it was all play in front of Kerry where they dropped back and had nine men behind the ball, and it was difficult to break them down. I think we had more penetration once the subs came on and that was important.

“We ended up finishing the game with 16 (Alain Kizenga), 17 (Freddie Turley), 18 (Zach Nolan) and 19 (Peter Grogan) year olds on the pitch so there’s lots of learning and there’s lots of improvements within the group as well.”

Ryan confirmed that his decision to deploy Callum Thompson as a lone striker was not a tactical one. Injuries/lack of fitness forced his hand, but he hopes to have more options when a wounded Longford Town come into town.

“It was more circumstances than anything else; we’d love to have the lads up top. Ben is feeling the effects of his ankle… we need to manage his load and get him back to full fitness. Cristian’s hamstring was a bit tight, so we didn’t want to play him…Peter is coming back from his injury in pre-season. So, our hand was forced to do what we did but I think you can see the difference when we have strikers on the pitch.

“I’m sure they are (eager to prove a point). I was at that game against Harps, and they started really well so I’m sure they’re eager to put things right; as are we.

“I don’t think we’ve hit our performance levels in our first two games, so we’ll look to go headto-head on that one.”