Letterkenny Rovers manager Stephen McConnell hit out at Finn Harps after Joel Bradley Walsh got injured playing for the Ballybofey club last night and was unable to feature in the FAI Junior Cup this evening.
Rovers lost out 3-1 against a good Mervue side today and McConnell was in no doubt that ‘the better team won’.
However, he said he was ‘very disappointed’ that Joel Bradley Walsh could not feature on the day.
Bradley Walsh got injured while playing for Finn Harps in a pre-season friendly against Dergview, and the talented defender was missed at Leckview Park.
“I just want to put on record that I’m very disappointed in our local League of Ireland team.
“They brought one of our players in on trial recently and I asked them could we use him for this game and not to play in a friendly for them last night.
“The manager (Darren Murphy) agreed and the player agreed, and he played last night and he’s done his ankle. It’s like a balloon in there and he couldn’t play for us.
“I’m very disappointed in them.
He added: “They haven’t offered him (anything) – he’s still on trial, but why was he playing in that friendly last night when their manager agreed not to play him?”
Rovers had high hopes of doing well in the competition this year and took an early lead through BJ Banda.
However, Mervue were soon on level terms, and while the Galway side are a good team, McConnell felt his charges didn’t ask them enough questions.
“We were 1-0 up after three minutes and then we sat off them and we probably should have kept going for them but we didn’t.
“Once they scored the first after 15 minutes they just kept coming at us and at us, and it took us a while to regroup.
“But I felt it could have been four-all at half-time. We had some big chances and their ‘keeper had some great saves and then they cleared one off the line.
“We kind of said, that we need to test them but I don’t think we tested them for the whole second half until the last ten minutes.
“The better team won. They were more up for it than us unfortunately.
“It’s not like us to be like that but that’s football sometimes.
“In the last ten minutes we kicked into life a bit. If the penalty goes in, it could be a different game but it’s not.”
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