Keith Long was disappointed with his side's second-half performance in the 3-0 defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic, however, the Bohemians manager felt the team were very unlucky to go into the break trailing by two goals.
Long felt that his side dominated proceedings at Richmond Park in Monday night’s Dublin derby but were denied by some excellent goalkeeping by the Saints goalkeeper, Joseph Anang, while the Gypsies also hit the crossbar midway through the half.
But it was two mistakes that gifted the home side their opening goals as hat-trick hero Tunde Owolabi first capitalised on a Ciaran Kelly error in the fifth minute before adding a second on the stroke of half-time when Bohs players were slow to react.
"I’m not quite sure how we went in 2-0 down at half-time," said Long, speaking to RTÉ Sport after the game.
"A bad mistake gifts Pat’s their opener, but we were well in the game, and we dominated the game aside from one or two transitions, we’ve worked their goalkeeper and he has pulled off two fantastic saves.
"And then the killer blow to concede a second goal. The nature of the second goal was not good enough from our perspective, we didn’t match a run into the box and we concede a terrible goal at a bad time and it changes the complexion of everything really."
Bohs failed to fire in the second half in their quest to get back into the game and the home side sealed the victory in the 68th minute as Owolabi completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot following a foul on Eoin Doyle.
And the performance was called out by Bohs boss Long who said that the lack of endeavour in that second 45 was just as disappointing as the overall result.
"We did not come out in the second half and the biggest disappointment aside from the result was that we didn’t work their keeper in the second half, and we didn’t test their defence, open them up or create opportunities," said Long.
And yet Long was not making excuses for the fact that his side have played two games in three days, making the point that it was the same for his opponents, while he does feel that a run of form – something that has eluded his own side – can see a team move right up the standings in a very evenly matched Premier Division.
"The league is very unpredictable and some of the teams who put a run together can climb the table rapidly," said Long, whose side now sit in seventh place on 22 points.
"We have been unable to do that and haven’t won back-to-back games this year and that’s disappointing."
