St Patrick's Ath boss delivers verdict on Jake Mulraney struggles this season
St Patrick's Athletic boss Stephen Kenny says he is confident that winger Jake Mulraney can rediscover the form he showed last year.
Mulraney hasn't had the same impact as he did after Kenny's arrival midway through the 2024 campaign, when he finished the year with seven league goals in 31 appearances.
The former Hearts, Atlanta United and Orlando City man also dazzled in Europe last summer, scoring twice in the Saints' run to the Europa Conference League play-offs.
However, it has been a difficult campaign so far for the former Hearts and Atlanta United man and he has yet to score in 19 league outings.
Kenny said: 'Obviously he hit phenomenal heights last year. He's not hit those heights this year. It's difficult to assess why, but he is a quality player, and there's no doubt about that.
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'So he just has to continue to work harder, work hard, because he was very bright in training last week.
'When he came back after the break, he was very bright and he showed a high technical level in training and looked like he was really pushing to start.
'So it's just finding the opportunity to find his level again. I'm confident he will do that in time.'
It's also been a tricky time for Pat's, with Monday's 1-0 defeat at home to Shelbourne ending a year-long unbeaten record at home.
With just one win in their last five league games and three in their last 12, they have fallen 12 points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers.
According to Kenny, they need to tighten up at the back, with only the bottom three clubs - Waterford, Cork City and Sligo Rovers conceding more so far this season.
'Obviously we scored a lot of goals,' said Kenny. 'Up to last week or the week before,we were sort of second top scorers in the league, we scored plenty.
'But we conceded a couple of, a two-all draw, and we conceded some, we're conceding too many probably.
'We should have taken our chances to really do it (against Shelbourne), so it's not been a good weekend for us.
'But we can't dwell on it, because we've got to dust ourselves down for Galway on Friday, Derry on Monday.'
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