Shels captain Coyle 'fed up of hard

Luckless would sum up Shelbourne's Conference League group outings, yet captain Mark Coyle isn’t throwing in the towel of reaching the knockout stages just yet.

Joey O’Brien’s side began with a battling point against Hacken, yet successive 1-0 defeats mean their chances of progression to the knockout stages with three games to go – including welcoming Premier League Crystal Palace to Dublin – look rather slim.

A cruel own goal in stoppage time away to Macedonian side KF Shkendija was followed by defeat at Tallaght Stadium to FC Drita of Kosovo, where the 16th-minute dismissal of James Norris was a crucial moment of the game.

Yet it was the League of Ireland side that created a number of chances, with striker Mipo Odubeko spurning a glorious opportunity to equalise.

Speaking after the game, Coyle said defeat was a bitter pill to swallow in the context of their performance.

"The sending off changes the game, but we still created numerous chances even after that," he told RTÉ Sport. "You can see our quality. If even one of them goes in, it changes the layout of game.

"We are extremely disappointed. We have left three points out there, but we are fed up of the hard luck stories because even the last game away in Shkendija was something similar.

"I really believe with 11 men we were getting three points, but that’s not how football always goes.

"We have to dust ourselves off and we know we have three massive games coming up."

Those three games will be formidable challenges.

Next up is a trip to Netherlands to take on Troy Parrott’s AZ Alkmaar (27 November), before hosting FA Cup holders Crystal Palace (11 December) and an away test at Polish club Celje (18 December).

Shels sit 30th out of 36 teams in the competition – one place above Shamrock Rovers – but Coyle insists the players won’t be short of motivation as they look to upset the odds against higher-calibre opposition.

"It makes the job much tougher with the opposition we are playing, but we’re excited for that as well," he said.

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