“Seven minutes of nonsense has cost us again” - Lawlor
Waterford FC interim Head Coach Matt Lawlor issuing instructions during the game against Derry City.
Waterford FC interim head coach Matt Lawlor couldn’t hide his disappointment after his side suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Derry City at the RSC on Friday night last as the Blues move into the dreaded relegation playoff spot.
After dominating the opening half hour, the Blues struck the front through Tommy Lonergan, who was guilty of missing an easier chance before his breakthrough, but defensive lapses in concentration saw Derry strike twice in seven minutes to land the win.
But Lawlor was left reeling at match referee Rob Hennessy after he failed to award the Blues what replays showed to be a clear penalty when Robbie Benson pushed Conan Noonan in the area with just over 20 minutes remaining in the contest. The referee would go on to wave away two further penalty calls.
“I don’t know what I can or can’t say, so I’ll stay away from that,” said Matt Lawlor. “They are stonewall penalties. One of them, at least, is so disappointing. There’s nothing that we can do about it now. I’m not one to talk about officials if I’m honest, but moments again.
“Everyone should look after their moments. I look after my moments, their manager looks after his moments, the players need to look after their moments, but the officials need to look after their moments in the game as well.”
With the Blues now in a real dogfight with both Galway United and Sligo Rovers, Lawlor isn’t hitting any panic buttons just yet.
“I thought that we were very good up to the 34th minute. We dominated the game, scored a great goal, and could have had a second. However, we seem to be discussing moments with this team a lot. We gave away two terrible goals from our point of view, especially the second one.
“I thought that we were outstanding early in the game. We played with energy and desire, and we moved the ball well. We’ve had a mad seven minutes of nonsense. That’s what it is from us – nonsense. It’s individual mistakes, and we have to take them. They change the complexion of the game.
“We need to look after our moments, and the players need to be good at looking after their moments. We have gifted the best player in the league, Michael Duffy, with what turned out to be the winning goal. You can’t do it. We are in the position where we are because we haven’t managed moments in matches.”
Lawlor believes that his side needs to work really hard ahead of two massive games in their survival bid. “We’ve gifted them two goals in the first half, but you look at the second half, it’s very scrappy. There are things that we can work on, and there are things that we can be pleased with. There were some pleasing moments, but we have to make it for 70 minutes. We need to ensure that we’re on top of it.
“We’re now in a real fight for survival and we need the players to step up now. We have two very tough fixtures, and we have to be ready for them. There’s a lot of ifs, buts and maybes. The results determine the level of performance, but there were elements of the performance that I was really pleased with.
“We can only control what we can control. We are planning towards the St. Pat’s game and getting a positive result there. We need to keep it alive going into the final game and we’ll do everything in our power, but we’ll concentrate on one game at a time.””
