Kurtis Byrne: “We knew we just needed to gel”

KURTIS Byrne believes St Patrick’s Athletic have gone a long way to rectifying the mistakes that led to a very disappointing start to their 2017 Airtricity League campaign.

After managing just one point from their opening five league games of the season, the Inchicore side appears to have turned a corner with big wins over Dublin rivals Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians.

Tallaght man Byrne, who only made the move to Pat’s from Bohs in January, was on target against his old club on Friday in Dalymount Park, firing home the final goal in their 4-0 demolition of the Gypsies who had harvested 10 points in their previous four games.

“The win against Rovers the previous week gave us a big lift,” said Byrne. “We trained well all week and we went into the game confident.

“I suppose in the previous games we really needed to get the first goal, to settle the nerves and push on.

“We did that against Bohs and it could have been even more than 4-0,” he added.

Six points from their last two games is a clear sign that Liam Buckley’s side are heading in the right direction according to Byrne.

“We had a great pre-season, but then we didn’t get the results we wanted at the start. But we didn’t panic.

“We knew we just needed to gel, get a good view of how we all played.

“I suppose a lot of the goals we conceded were down to mistakes, individual errors. But we’ve worked on that and I think we’ve managed to cut them out” he explained.

Next up for the Saints will be the arrival of a Limerick side who only just parted company with manager Martin Russell.

Only goal difference separates the two teams in the Premier Division table and Pat’s will be hoping to leap-frog their guests.

Looking to make it three wins in a row, Byrne said: “I think it will be the same as last week. We’ll go into the match confident and go out and attack them.

“Limerick have picked up a few points. They’re a good side. I know they’ve lost their manager, but the players will be trying to impress whoever comes in,” he pointed out.

St Pat’s will be coming into that match off the back of their 1-0 victory over Leinster Senior League champions Bluebell United in the EA Sports Cup on Tuesday night, Billy Dennehy firing home the decisive goal on 43 minutes.