Fingal Independent: Byrne "gutted" at the manner of the defeat

Conan Byrne admitted he was "gutted" with the manner in which Sporting Fingal let three points slip from their grasp against UCD at Morton Stadium.

Having taken an early lead through Eamon Zayed, Fingal proceeded to waste a succession of chances before being undone by two set-piece goals from Andy Boyle in the first-half and Evan McMillan in the 87th minute.

It was only the Ravens' third league defeat of the season and the first to a side other than Bohemians. And Byrne could not hide his disappointment after the final whistle.

"We're gutted to have lost goals from two-set plays. They had only one shot on target in the second-half [from which they scored]," said Byrne. "But fair play to them, they kept it going and they never gave up themselves. They could have sat back and been content with a draw but in fairness to them they tried to get us on the counter-attack and they tried to get the winner throughout the game."

"But we're very disappointed we didn't get the three points with the amount of chances we created," he added.

Byrne acknowledged that the result puts UCD back into contention in what is an incredibly tight title-race. And he feels that both sides will still be competing at the top end of the table come the business end of the season.

"That's them straight back into it now, they're a very very good side and I'd be surprised if they're not up there towards the end of the season, but we're just disappointed we weren't able to get the points."

"We have to be up there towards the end of the season," Byrne insisted. "We've a squad of players in there that are professional, that are very keen on winning things and we've a winning mentality in the dressing room."

"We'll bounce back next week hopefully but we're terribly disappointed with this result today."

This article appeared in the Fingal Independent on June 29th, 2010 - alongside my match report - during the 2010 season. Sporting Fingal finished fourth that season, five points behind eventual champions Shamrock Rovers.

The club qualified for the first qualifying round of the 2010/11 Europa League by virtue of the fact that third-placed Sligo Rovers (who finished a point above Fingal) had won the FAI Cup final against Shamrock Rovers, the combination of the two achievements earning Sligo a place in the second qualifying round. UCD fell away in the second half of the season, finishing seventh in the end.

Eventually, Sporting Fingal was dissolved in February 2011 when the club lost its primary financial backer before the start of the new season (article on Fingal's dissolution by the Irish times).