Shamrock Rovers manager Pat Fenlon admitted he had little to say to his players following their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division defeat to Cork City at Turner’s Cross last night.
Early goals from Steven Beattie and Karl Sheppard saw Cork earn a comfortable 2-0 victory, and Fenlon was disappointed with the application of his side, especially during the first half.
"I haven’t said a lot to them to be honest. They know themselves. I can’t keep going in and having a go at them, you know?"
It was Rovers' second successive loss, following their 2-0 home defeat to Dundalk last week, and Fenlon admitted his team simply aren’t good enough at the moment.
“We never started, in fairness. Give Cork great credit,” he told RTÉ Sport.
“They came out like a steam train and blew us away in the first 20 minutes. We never got going.
“We did better in the second half, but, in the first half we gave them the game I suppose and they took advantage of that.”
Fenlon continued: “We didn’t play well enough. Cork were very good early on I thought. Got the crowd going, scored a nice early goal and we didn’t turn up.”
The former Hibernian boss then revealed he had little to say to his players afterwards, a worrying admission by any standard.
He said: “I haven’t said a lot to them to be honest. They know themselves. I can’t keep going in and having a go at them, you know? It just wasn’t good enough tonight from us.”
VIDEO: Highlights from last night's win for @corkcityfc over @shamrockrovers.https://t.co/hScLquhka4
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) April 26, 2016
He added: “We keep going, keep working away, trying to get better. That’s all we can do.”
Fenlon was happy to concede Cork were worthy winners, but again bemoaned the poor start by his side, saying: “Cork thoroughly deserved to win the game, they were the better side from start to finish.
“Like I said, second half was a bit better. They sat back and soaked it up a little bit - tried to hit us on the counter attack. But... you come here and don’t start the game you’re not going to get too much out of it to be honest.”
Rovers' latest losses are a worry, admits Fenlon, but he also believes defeats are part and parcel of a competitive league.
He concluded: “You’re always worried when you’re losing games. But I think that will be the case over the course of the season, I think that’s the way the league is. Everybody is capable of beating each other.”
Rovers have now lost four league games out of nine this season - the same number that the Tallaght side lost all last season - and leaves them already seven points adrift of leaders Dundalk.
