The siege mentality built by Damien Duff at Shelbourne shows no sign of waning after reiterating his stance that his club are consistently on the wrong side of calls from match officials.
Shels bounced back from last Friday's defeat to Shamrock Rovers with a 1-0 victory away to St Patrick’s Athletic, the hard-fought encounter decided by Ali Coote’s early strike to condemn the hosts to a first home defeat in over a year.
Both sides have struggled of late, but the three points moves the Tolka Park club up to fifth in the table.
It was, however, a night where Duff again fell foul of match officials.
The Republic of Ireland centurion, who served a one-match suspension earlier this season after collecting five bookings, added another caution to the tally at Richmond Park and is moving closer to a second touchline ban this term.
"I thought I was very calm tonight," he told RTÉ Sport. "I always go away and self assess how I talk to people, how I speak to you, the players, the staff and fourth officials.
"Tonight I have got a yellow card for asking a question. It’s disappointing, but like I always tell the lads, it’s us against the world and there were numerous things tonight that prove that."
Duff was pleased with his side’s opening 45 minutes and their ability to dig in when it became more of a struggle in possession after the resumption.
"It was a tale of two halves, but when you dissect it, I think we deserved to win the game," he said. "In the first half, we were outstanding with the ball, playing through them at will.
"We absolutely deserved to go one-nil up at half-time, and then in the second half, we couldn’t string two passes together. Let’s call a spade a spade, but it’s the other side of us. It’s the other side of how you win games."
Stephen Kenny's side have now suffered back-to-back defeats to Shels and missed the opportunity to go second. Duff conceded that the hosts, while normally good in transition, didn’t overly trouble Conor Kearns between the sticks.
Given the sobering defeat to Rovers last time out, Shels’ resilience was what really struck a chord for the manager.
"Most of the half (second), I think they huffed and puffed, but I don’t think they had a lot of chances," he said. "That goes down to the lads and the way they defended.
"I referenced the All Blacks before the game. They don’t look at the scoreboard, they don’t look that they are behind. They don’t look at the time that is left, they just attack the moment in front of them and I think we did that brilliantly tonight."
Kenny was disappointed to see Pats' unbeaten home record surrendered and lamented a below-par first-half display.
The former Republic of Ireland manager made a triple substitution at the break – Ryan McLaughlin was an injury concern but Anto Breslin and Jake Mulraney made way in a tactical reshuffle – and felt there was an improvement as a result.
"The tempo of our passing wasn’t at the level it needed to be," he said. "I was disappointed overall with our first-half display, which was in complete contrast to our second-half display which was at a really high level.
"There was a lot of technical quality, really good individual skill. We just couldn’t score.
"We’re disappointed we didn’t take any of the chances we created."
