STEPHEN KENNY has done it all in Irish football.
It has not gone to plan in this campaign for St Pat’s but there were flashes of class on Friday after a bad start.
Galway needed keeper Evan Watts to make a string of saves to keep the Tribe ahead.
Friday’s 3-1 defeat means the mood music is not good in Inchicore but the Pat’s boss feels they will come good.
Kenny said: “I’ve never seen a goal like the first goal. For us to concede that goal, our defensive structure wasn’t right. That’s not acceptable.
“The second, Joseph Anang made a mistake. It was an outstanding finish from David Hurley.
“He’s done well to stick that in from there. He’s probably the only player that could have done that.
“We find ourselves 2-0 down after hardly any minutes. I can’t believe it because we prepared well.
“We get a great goal, great finish but then we concede within a minute.”
Ed McCarthy and David Hurley — from the halfway line — had put United ahead. Simon Power pulled one back but Robert Slevin replied to win the game for Galway.
Kenny added: “Moses Dyer puts it in the far corner, a sort of rugby-style kick-out into the corner. We should set and clear, we don’t do that and we can’t concede from a corner. That’s poor from us.
“We had so many efforts at goal then. The young keeper pulled off five outstanding saves. We had a definite penalty.
“Mason Melia is coming on to it and Greg Cunningham pulled him down.
“We reacted well but you can’t give yourself a mountain to climb. The players gave everything. It was just a lack of concentration for the two goals and individual mistakes.”
Tomorrow Pat’s host Derry City, who beat Shelbourne 1-0 on Friday night.
Kenny said: “Derry is a different game completely. We are at home. It’s not been a good week. We played a lot of good stuff this year, but we’ve had a bad week. Because the European teams have a Monday game, a bad week can knock you.
“We only took a point from the three games. That’s obviously not good enough. We’ve got to bounce back.
“Last season we went from third bottom to in contention with two games to go, getting into Europe. Now we are in Europe in a few weeks.
“We have a lot of work to do to go again.”
