After two successive defeats Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson is promising a response this weekend against Roddy Collins Athlone Town side.
After losing to Shelbourne last week and Longford Town the week before, which has put a dent in their promotion hopes, Ramblers will be looking to get back to winning ways as Athlone Town visit St Colman’s Park on Saturday evening.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game Henderson said, “It’s been going on a while, this poor form, I’m going back to the Wexford game, we beat them 1-0 and we didn’t play well. We played Longford and didn’t play well in the first half, second half was ok. We had a long conversation in the dressing room after the Shelbourne game, we sat down and said, right, where are we going to go with this? I know where we’re going, and I hope these lads want to come with me.”
Henderson pulled no punches when he said how important this weekend’s game is, “We have a lot of work to do now. We got into this position by doing certain things, they’re a very genuine and talented bunch of lads, and very hard working. I thought we looked a bit tired against Shelbourne, so we must get them ready and get them fresh for Athlone now on Saturday. It’s a game we have to win if we’re to keep in touch with Waterford, if we have any aspirations of winning this league we’re going to have to win. Simple as.”
There’s still plenty to play for with Cobh still in the First Division promotion race, “The reality is, we’re only five points off and there’s 11 games to go. We’re going through a bad patch at the moment, everyone goes through a bad patch unless you’re Cork City! I suppose we’re going to learn a lot about the character of the squad, how we’re going to come out at the other side. And we’ll find out on Saturday night against Athlone.”