Shane Keegan: "We're pretty much a match for anyone

Wexford Youths boss Shane Keegan says he’s more convinced that his side can match the top teams in the Premier Division than he was at the beginning of the season.

Keegan's part-time team, made up primarily of students and members of the defence forces, have won compliments for their doggedness and style of play in their first season at the top level.

They haven't thus far managed to transform those displays into points – they've managed just one win from nine – but Keegan has seen enough to be confident his team can stay up.

“We're probably more satisfied with the performance side of it than the points tally.

“Unfortunately a lot of those early good performances didn't get any points for us, but we've shown over the course of the games so far that we're pretty much a match for everybody when we're at it.

“I probably have a stronger belief now that we'll stay up than I did at the start of the season.”

The Wexford native spoke following the draw for the second round of the FAI Cup at the Aviva Stadium, where Youths were drawn away to Leinster Senior League side Firhouse Clover.

“We wouldn't know a massive amount about them at the moment, but we will do by the time we play them, that's for sure.

“They seem to be having a pretty successful season.

“I think they're third or fourth in the Leinster Senior League, which is obviously the strongest league around outside of the League of Ireland.

“If they're doing well in that then it's bound to be a real test.”

Given his side's surprisingly strong start to the season – even if their performances haven't quite translated into points – has given Keegan some insight into the mindset of the underdog.

And Youths will be in the unfamiliar position of Goliath to Clover's David when they visit the Tallaght club next month.

“We are [wary], particularly when they're at home as they're going to be. It'll be a big, big test.

“We've had a couple of non-league oppositions over the past couple of years in the cup and it's always a real test because they're usually very, very motivated. It's a big game for them.

“All we can do is worry about ourselves and make sure we put in a big performance, treat it as just another game and don't build it up too much in our own heads. It won't be an easy one, that's for sure.”

Youths lost each of their opening three fixtures of the season, but it was the performance on their last visit to Tallaght that, in spite of a negative result, forced other clubs to take notice.

Champions Dundalk needed a late goal to take all three points at Ferrycarrig Park three days later, and from there they took points away to Cork City and Bohemians either side of a win over Bray Wanderers.

“We were good by and large over the first seven games of the season and we've been poor in the last two.

“The next three games are now against teams that are in the bottom five at the moment, so that's going to be the real make and break for us.

“We need to deliver, and this game will be thrown in amongst it all.

“It's a really busy period between now and the break – five or six games coming thick and fast, the midweek one against Longford, things like that. It's going to be a busy period.”

While Keegan expected his side to be up for the fight in their first few games at the top level, the frequency and the attritional nature of games at the top level has naturally taken his toll as April draws to a close.

A thumping 4-0 loss to St Patrick's Athletic was compounded by a petulant sending-off for record-breaking goalscorer Danny Furlong, and he misses both last week's loss to Galway United and Friday's visit of Finn Harps.

“The squad is certainly being tested at the moment. We've been without six, and on Friday night all six would have been in the starting line-up or there and thereabouts in any given week.

“We're unlikely to have too many of them back in the next week or two either, so the squad certainly is being tested.

“But we have enough quality there even with those injuries to put in better performances than we have in the last two weeks. It's a step up this Friday night.”

With just two games of the opening round of fixtures to play, Youths remain joint bottom of the table alongside Longford Town, however Keegan has seen enough in the performances to convince him they can climb up the ladder.

“We were getting a lot of respect early on because the performances had been decent.

“I suppose if the performances we've given on the last seven days had come in the first two performances of the season everybody would be writing us off as relegation certainties.

“We're neither relegation certainties as far as I'm concerned, nor a mid-table team yet.

“I think we're going to be down around the bottom – it's our first ever season up – and the vast majority of the lads have never played at this level.

“They're going to be learning on the job and it's going to be a fight right throughout the season, but as long as we're up for that fight I still think we'll come out on the right side.”