“We’ve got to dust ourselves off and look ahead”- Bermingham
ST PATRICK’S Athletic defender Ian Bermingham has remained positive despite seeing his side open their Airtricity League campaign with a narrow 3-2 defeat at the hands of defending champions Cork City in Richmond Park on Friday night.
The Saints served up a real battle against the Leesiders who took a two-goal lead compliments of Barry McNamee and Graham Cummins.
Yet Bermingham ignited a comeback by the homeside when he turned in a delivery by Conan Byrne who, himself, later squared the match.
Liam Buckley’s side were presented with opportunities to take the lead, but instead it was Cork who nabbed a winner through Kieran Sadlier on 82 minutes.
“I thought we played quite well, even when we were losing” Bermingham told The Echo.
“We gave away two sloppy goals, but then to come back from that showed great character. At that point there was only one team in the ascendency and it looked like we would go on to win it.
“Going forward we looked good and we had a couple of chances to score a winner.
“Most teams, if they’d gone two goals down against the champions might have felt it was all over, but we showed great character to come back
“But then we got hit with that sucker punch. It was a nightmare really, but we’ve just got to dust ourselves off and look ahead to this weekend” he said.
Indeed Pat’s have the chance to shed the disappointment of that opening night defeat when they travel to the Carlisle Grounds to take on Bray Wanderers tomorrow night (Friday) after which they will quickly turn their attention to Monday’s trip to Waterford FC.
A full return from these two fixtures would be a timely boost to the Inchicore side as Bermingham pointed out.
“If we get six points we won’t be looking back on the loss to Cork.
“Bray got a good draw against Dundalk and Waterford had a good win against Derry, so they’ll be flying high, but it we play to our potential I feel we can beat them.
“I think we’ve got a strong side together and we’re much stronger than we were this time last year.
“The lads have worked hard in pre-season and if we play to the best of our ability I really feel we can have a good season.
“Getting a good start in this league is so important because otherwise you’re chasing it.
“That’s the mistake we made last season and we only really stayed up on the last day.
“This year we want to be really challenging for trophies and so we’ve got to be picking up points sooner rather than later” he stressed.
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