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With the U17s letting a two goal lead slip this afternoon, manager John Furlong sat down with waterfordfc.ie to give an honest and frank evaluation of the game. First half goals from Oisin Knox and Ciaran Brennan weren’t enough to seal all three points for the Blues although their unbeaten start to 2017 continued.

Speaking after the match, Furlong said:

“It was definitely a case of two points dropped and feels like a defeat to me to be honest. Hopefully the lads will have learnt their lesson today. We got ourselves 2-0 up and probably should have been three or four in front. We were in total control of the game before giving a sloppy goal away just before half time.  

“If we had got into the break at 2-0 it was game over. The goal was sloppy but we’ve been conceding sloppy goals and normally what has got us out of games is that our finishing has been good. We seen it today, we could have been three or four up by half time having created plenty of chances. You can’t keep wasting them opportunities, good teams will come back to punish you and whilst they didn’t have many chances they took the ones that came their way.”

Whilst Furlong and his management team can take positives from another game where his side have scored goals and kept their unbeaten start intact, he felt his side should have been cleverer in their game management:

“We didn’t really show an ability to manage the game. I thought second half was even enough, they had a player sent off which you thought would have made it easier for us but our game management was poor. We couldn’t keep the ball and we weren’t clever enough to keep UCD at bay.

“We probably had the best chance to go and win at the end as well when they equalised but I think that glosses over our failings. What disappointed me more was at 2-1, they were piling on the pressure, we looked a bit leggy and tired, but as soon as they equalised we got a new lease of life so I’ve put the question to them – where do we get that from? If we had shown that energy at 2-1 we probably would have seen the game out. It was a very warm day today and we had played three games in a week but I think I’m making excuses really. It’s probably inexperience but they should have seen the game out.”

Summing up, Furlong concluded:

“Our lads have to learn that in this league you have to keep going right to the end and take your chances because even just before they equalised we had a fantastic chance to go 3-1 up and that would have been it but you get punished when you don’t take your chances.”

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