Kerry FC’s James Sugrue says ‘there’s a big difference between confidence and cockiness... and I think a bit of cockiness kicked in’

In the aftermath of Friday’s deeply frustrating 2-1 home defeat to Athlone Town, those were certainly the immediate feelings of Kerry FC coach James Sugrue. Sensing in the build-up that a hint of over-confidence was creeping into the young side, he tried to sum up what had occurred.

“I actually had a conversation in the hotel, believe it or not, beforehand. I told the boys that we’re in a good place at the moment, but that there’s a big difference between confidence and cockiness,” he said.

“I think, when we went up 1-0 tonight, we could have really gone for the jugular, and I think a bit of cockiness kicked in.

“Gradually you could see us taking the foot off the pedal. When you have teams by the throat, you have to keep going, you be aggressive, high intensity all the time, and you take it to them. You could see that we thought we were in for an easy night, by the looks of it.”

Particularly annoying, from a home perspective, was that Kerry FC were excellent in the opening 30 minutes, with Kennedy Amechi slotting home a spot-kick to give them the lead. The goals that they eventually conceded did not please Sugrue too much.

“Going back to the basics again, we should have cleared the ball [for Athlone’s first goal]. It was a bad clearance to the edge of the box. The second goal was a header then that we had worked on for 20 minutes last night.

“Any ball that comes into the box, you head it away, but we headed it to the edge of the box, and they get the shot. It’s back to the basics again.

“For me, when you go into these games, and you go ahead, the attitude has to be right all the time. I kept saying to them all week in training, you keep the high intensity and you keep the right attitude. If you lose that for a second at this level, it will come back and bite you.”

Another disappointing aspect of the Kerry FC performance was that, even when Carl Mujaguzi volleyed home what turned out to be his incredible winner in the 62nd minute, the hosts had at least a half an hour to respond and bounce back. However, that just did not happen.

“I think we came out and we were flat for most of the second half, to be honest. You’ve a lot of good players for Athlone in there, they don’t stop playing, they don’t give up. When you go ahead, you’ve got to keep going with the right attitude, high intensity, and I’ll keep singing that to the players. This won’t happen again.

“It all boils down to attitude. When 1-0 up, we should have kept playing the right football, still doing the hard graft, and had the simple things right. We stopped doing that, we stopped playing, we took the foot off the pedal, and we didn’t stay at the intensity that we should be playing at.

“We’ve just got to keep going now, there’s a long season there, and I know that the players are hungry. It’s a big lesson learned that when you play at this level, you just can’t stop. We’ve worked too hard to get into these positions, to just then throw it out the window.

“We have to be hungry all the time. We’ll get back in, as we always do, in training next week, we’ll work hard, and we’ve a big game up in Bray to turn things around.”

One positive on the night, however, was the return to the squad, after injury issues, for Sean McGrath, Amechi and Nathan Gleeson. There is also some good news on the horizon for close-season arrival Valerii Dolia, who is inching closer to a long-awaited Kerry FC debut.

“No injuries tonight, it was just personnel, we just changed things around [in the second half]. We felt that we needed to freshen it up a bit, and the way things are now with the bench gone so strong with players back in, if you’re not doing the job, that’s what’s going to happen.

“It’s great to have them all back in. Valerii is back next week, he should be back in training, so he’s like a new signing really. Next week is his first week with us, and the squad is looking very strong, but the big thing for me, and being realistic about the game, tonight is a big learning curve for us.

“They’re young, so it’s a big learning curve, and I’ll keep singing it – at this level, I’ve played at it, you’re playing against experienced players that have been there, they won’t give up, that’s what they did. Athlone stuck at it, in fairness to them, and they got the win in the end.”