Cobh Ramblers falter on the biggest night of all at home to Kerry

Cobh Ramblers 0

Kerry 2

Cobh Ramblers manager Fran Rockett says his team ‘didn’t turn up’ as their play-off hopes took a major blow with a defeat to Kerry at St Colman’s Park on Friday night..

A win would have all but secured a top five finish, but now the club need to win on the final day in Limerick against Treaty United while hoping other results go their way around the league.

It was a damaging night for all involved against a Kerry team that needed to win to go into the play-offs, under former Cork City coach Colin Healy.

The Ramblers were undone by a deflected Cian Bargary strike in the 22nd minute and an awkward Cian Brosnan strike from a Timothy Martin mistake at the Liam McMahon Stand.

It was bruising first half and Cobh never recovered, as an attempted comeback petered out in front of a crowd totalling 1165.

“We did not get to grips with the game at the start of the game and we didn’t turn up for the first 45 minutes,” Rockett said.

“We beat ourselves. We knew what we’d expect from the opposition and we knew what way they’d play. 

"The two goals we gave away were unforgiving. You can’t do that at this stage of the season.

“We were hoping to get a little bit of a reaction but we gave ourselves a mountain to climb which we did in previous games while battling the elements. We couldn’t get it right.

“We just needed to stay in there. It was a really disappointing first 45 and the second 45 was disappointing not to have any clearcut chances or opportunities to try and capitalise on it.” 

The Ramblers tried to reinvent themselves in the second half by bringing on Dara McCormick, Callum Honohan, and Jonas Stjernberg. 

Kerry took a step back in response and cut off any clear route to goal, something that prompted long range efforts from Rhys Gourdie.

Nothing went their way while Matthew Connor had very little to go in between the sticks as the clock ticked towards fulltime.

“We weren’t good enough – we weren’t good enough as far as I’m concerned,” Rockett added.

“The players weren’t [good enough] and they said it themselves. I think we’re already after switching onto next week. 

"It’s a funny point of the season, when you’re on the back of a result like that, that we didn’t see coming.

“We’re going from our best performance to the highs of last week to the lows of this week. 

"It’s tough and it’s quite clear that we have to win next week and see where that takes us. That clarity will be interesting for the rest of the week because it makes things a lot easier. 

"I’m really disappointed [with the Kerry result] because that was a below par performance. We can’t do that again next week.” 

The Ramblers have to get the better of Treaty United next week, while hoping for a draw or an Athlone Town win in their game with Longford Town. Their entire season depends on it.

Cobh Ramblers: Timothy Martin; Brian Lenihan, Brendeán Frahill, Cian Coleman, Luka Le Bervet; Oran Crowe, Ronan Mansfield; Shane Griffin, Rhys Gourdie, Dylan McGlade, Jordan Adeyemi.

Subs: Dara McCormick for McGlade (HT); Callum Honohan for Frahill (60), Jonas Stjernberg for Crowe (69), Anthony Adenopo for Linehan (85).

Kerry: Matthew Connor; Samuel Aladesanusi, Niall Brookwell, Jonas Hakkinen, Sean O’Connell; Ewan Lee, Vincent Borden; Cian Bargary, Sean McGrath, Cian Brosnan; Cian Murphy.

Subs: Ryan Perez for Brosnan (74); Arran Healy for McGrath (88), Robert Keane for Bargary (90).

Referee: Oliver Moran