Drogheda United manager Kevin Doherty admitted he had to read the riot act to his players after a poor first-half display in the Sports Direct FAI Cup semi-final as they turned the game around against Wexford FC.
United were in the unfamiliar position of being overwhelming favourites to win a game against the First Division outfit at Weavers Park.
With the weight of expectations, the Boynesiders struggled to get a grip on the game as Aaron Dobbs' goal late in the first-half put the visitors ahead.
Substitute Adam Foley (2) and Douglas James-Taylor produced goals in the second period to eventually break Wexford hearts, with the decider coming injury-time.
"Wexford are such a really good side, they have a lot of good players, and they did a job on us. In the first half, they were first to every ball. They won more duels. They won the vast majority of second balls.
"You can have all the tactics, everything in the world, but if you're losing duels like that [you won’t win]. We just were too slow and it took us a while to get going.
"But we had to find a way. Half-time was fairly….. I wasn't overly happy obviously, But the lads responded and we came out in the second half and we were excellent."
Foley has had to be patient this year, usually taking his place on the bench due to the form of Frantz Pierrot and James-Taylor.
Injury to the Haitian striker gave Foley more minutes this afternoon and he grabbed the opportunity.
Doherty felt Foley would produce the goods: "You just know that he's going to do something. He's been brilliant for me in my three years now and he doesn't give out.
"He plays right-back at times. He goes and get the goals and Dougie's goal as well. He's been excellent for us. Until we went 2 -1 up, we were excellent.
"And then when we went 2 -1 up, they get a really, really poor goal. We just had to get over it, but to come back then and go again shows character. It is an old cliché. No one cares about the performance of the semi-final. It's all about getting to the final."
The relegation play-off and an FAI Cup final looks likely to await United over the space of a few days in November, unless they can reel in Bohemians in the final five games.
Doherty is happy to take whatever the schedule brings.
"As much as it was probably nearly having a heart attack at times during the games, you'd do it 100 times over for that final whistle and you're into the final, or you get three points that might help us on the way to being in the division next year.
"We'll recover, we'll get ready, because we're in Waterford on Friday. It's going to be a really, really tough game, but we can enjoy the next couple of hours at least."
We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Wexford’s James Keddy had mixed emotions after such a rollercoaster of an afternoon, knowing that a final place was within their reach.
They will now focus on their quest for the play-offs, with regrets of what could have been.
"I'm very proud of the boys. They're very young but we gave set plays away and defensively we weren't good enough.
"We worked on them all week and it's disappointing because we did enough to win the game.
"The game was there for the taking. As I said to them, sometimes you have to lose to learn how to win. The hurt inside the dressing room, it's difficult, but that's football.
"A little bit of experience told in the end. As I say, we have to get ourselves up for Kerry next week and I wish Drogheda all the best in the final."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
