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paddy connolly after livi game

We are disappointed with the result and it feels a bit like a defeat. That was certainly the feeling in the dressing room afterwards. We had the lead twice in the match and I felt we had control of the game, but it is two really poor goals we lose and I will need to sit down with the players and look back at what went wrong. The positive is that it’s another point on the board and a vital one at this stage of the season. Hopefully it can help guide us closer to where we want to be and we will just pick ourselves up now and go again for the cup final.

I told the players after the match that decision making at this time of the season is going to be vital because it could mean the difference between a win and a draw so we have to improve that aspect. I don’t think the game was pretty at times, but there was a lot of passion on the pitch with two teams fighting for their lives and desperate for the points. There was plenty of talking points and goals in the match, which might have been good for the neutral, but not for us in the dugout. Overall, we are disappointed to still not get the win despite scoring twice.

We are ready to fight for a trophy now and we will enjoy this week with a break from the tension of the league, but there is no doubt we will be ready to do battle on Sunday. It is hard to say what effect this game will have on Sunday because this one was so intense with what was at stake for both teams in terms of league survival. Hopefully this Sunday both teams can play with more of a freedom to allow for a better football match. Cup finals don’t come along too often for players or coaches so it is an occasion we will savour.

Bucks is on fire just now in terms of goal at the minute and the timing of that couldn’t be better for us at this point in this season so it is the other aspects of the game we now need to improve on. We have had to take the criticism about not scoring enough goals over the season, but he has four in his last four games now and I will take that everyday of the week. We now need to have an all round performance now for the final and look to cut out the errors that are costing us cheap goals.

Chopra came in and showed flashes of the quality that he has especially at the first goal. It was a difficult game for him to come in, but his fitness is not too bad and he just needs some crucial game time to get him up to speed now. He had a big part in setting up the first goal and hopefully we can see more of that for the rest of the campaign.