Tim Clancy believes Tallaght revival shows St Pat’s ‘do not have bad players’

A 2-2 draw at Shamrock Rovers eased the pressure on St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy is shown a red card by referee Damien MacGraith during their visit to Tallaght Stadium on St Patrick's Day. Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

A 2-2 draw at Shamrock Rovers eased the pressure on St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy is shown a red card by referee Damien MacGraith during their visit to Tallaght Stadium on St Patrick's Day. Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

A 2-2 draw at Shamrock Rovers eased the pressure on St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Seán O'Connor

March 19 2023 02:30 AM

St Patrick’s Athletic manager Tim Clancy says his side's late equaliser at Shamrock Rovers will inspire confidence after ending a run of three successive defeats.

The champions were minutes away from securing a first win of 2023 after Jack Byrne’s thunderbolt, but substitute Jake Mulraney’s superb 89th-minute effort earned a much-needed point for the Saints and eased the pressure on Clancy, who was booed off by a section of the home support at Richmond Park seven days earlier.

The Saints boss praised the performance of his players, who twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at a sold-out Tallaght Stadium, as the Inchicore side enter the international break on a high, despite remaining in ninth place.

“The seven crazy days we had were not good enough,” said Clancy, who was sent off in injury-time and will be in the stands for their next game at home to UCD on Friday week.

St Patrick's Athletic manager Tim Clancy is shown a red card by referee Damien MacGraith during their visit to Tallaght Stadium on St Patrick's Day. Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

“This will be good for the confidence levels. It shows we do not have bad players. There is no magic formula to say what has been wrong. I have been in football a hell of a long time. You don’t listen to the noise when it is going well and you don’t listen to it, either, when it is going really bad. You stay in the middle.

“When you are not getting results at a club like St Pat’s then inevitably you are going to come under pressure. But the performances of the players, we got a hell of a lot of commitment and it will give us a boost. I think we deserved a point.”

“It was a tremendous game for the neutral. Jack’s goal was worthy of winning any game but then Jake comes on and scores one equally as good. When you have goals like that from each side, I think a draw was a deserved result.”

Clancy also hit out at the standard of refereeing in the St Patrick’s Day clash and claimed his side were denied two handballs in the late stages.

“I have no idea how he does not give a handball,” said Clancy.

“Everybody in the stadium could see it was a handball. It’s an easy one to give on the halfway line. Then, we were defending a corner, we cleared and it hit another Rovers player on the hand and he doesn’t give that. It is very frustrating, it's small little things like that which have been going against us.”

The St Pat’s boss lauded goalkeeper Dean Lyness who made his first start for the club after arriving earlier this month. The 31-year-old replaced Ireland underage cap David Odumosu, who was dropped after a poor start to 2023, and made several key saves in Dublin 24 to help his side earn a point.

“Dean has made a few good saves there and he has got the experience,” added Clancy.

“With Danny (Rogers) getting a really bad injury we had to look for an out of contract keeper. Dean was at Airdrieonians, got let go by them and was looking for something.

“When you look at the age profile at the end of the game, I’d imagine the average age was in the very low 20s. It’s important when things aren’t going well that you have an experienced head in goals. That helps.”