New Cork City manager Gerard Nash reacts to St Pat's meltdown with stark warning
New Cork City manager Gerard Nash believes the Rebels have the spirit and belief to get out of trouble - if they sort their defensive woes.
The 38-year-old watched from the stands as City imploded at the death to lose 3-2 away to St Pat's at Richmond Park.
Charlie Lyons and Seanie Maguire scored to cancel out Mason Melia's opener and the Leesiders were on track for a precious win. But Zack Elbouzedi equalised - with the aid of a deflection - in the 89th minute before Jamie Lennon snatched victory with a 95th minute winner.
It was a rude awakening for new manager Nash who went straight to Richmond Park after stepping off the plane from Sweden. The former Ipswich Town player was first-team coach at Swedish top flight side GAIS, having moved from Aston Villa's U18s and Ipswich Town's U23s and U18s before that.
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Last night, Nash said: 'My previous employer in Gothenburg, we only played on Wednesday night, had a good game and we won and then I left the club on Thursday. I was in four countries in a day, from Sweden to Denmark to England and eventually got here, and I will end up in Cork tonight so it's been a busy day.
'I have always tried to make myself better, and do things to improve. The biggest thing now is timing. We all have things in our personal lives but I was lucky enough to be offered the job this week, and it was too good an opportunity to turn down.'
The Leixlip man continued: 'There's a feeling within the group that we can get more out of the team, and a big factor was to be back in Ireland. I'm an Irishman, I left here at a very young age and I'm looking forward to basing myself in Cork and being back home.'
Nash did not speak to the players before the Inchicore clash, but he left the director's box to go into the dressing room at half-time. It was an unusual first meeting with his new squad but Nash said: 'Life is unpredictable, you have to throw yourself into it and make an impact. I felt there were a couple of things I needed to address and there was a really good response. It was a strange introduction but we've plenty of time to get to know each other.'
Conceding goals has been Cork City's problem all year and the Rebels have thrown away over 20 points from positions of strength in games. Their frustration on Friday was compounded when news filtered through that bottom side Sligo Rovers won away to Galway United - and are now level on 12 points with City.
Assessing Friday's performance at St Pat's, Nash said: 'That's football. I've been in this situation before and it's never over until the final whistle. You're never sure, so it's a disappointing result undoubtedly. It was my first 90 minutes at the club.
'Did I see aspects of the performance that really pleased me, yes. That gives me hope and confidence and should give the players the same. But if you concede the amount of goals we have you will always be in trouble. We will work on it, but as important as that is the spirit of the team. For all the disappointment of the goals we conceded, we showed in the second-half our spirit and belief.'
And Nash added: 'There will be 10 managers in the league tonight thinking, how can we build and go on a run? It's a competitive league and you could see the fine margins in that game - fine margins decide games and we need to be better at that. It's my first day, so I'm looking forward to working with the players. It's a good group of players and I can't wait to get started.'
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