O’Connor will learn from mistake - Keane

ROY Keane believes that Shane O’Connor will learn from his mistake, and so become a better player in future years.

Ipswich Town’s young left-back blotted his copybook by conceding a late penalty, from which visiting Doncaster Rovers grabbed a point at Portman Road.

O’Connor had enjoyed a good game, up until the moment where he failed to complete a headed clearance, before pushing over substitute Dean Shiels to concede the spot kick.

Keane explained: “Sometimes, players have to be punished for making mistakes, so they learn from it, because otherwise if you get away with it you think - “well, I can take that chance again.”

“Shane has got to learn from it. He made the original mistake with the header, but generally he has done well today and that was probably the easiest situation he was in.

“Once he learns from it, sometimes the mistake is worth it,” added Keane.

The Irishman was not surprised that his team failed to kill off Doncaster, having taken a 72nd minute lead through Connor Wickham. It meant they had to make do with a club record 19th league draw of the campaign.

“No doubt it’s some sort of record,” continued Keane, ruefully.

“What you have to learn to do, even on your off day - and we weren’t that great today - is that when you go 1-0 up you should win the game.

We didn’t do that, due to a bit of inexperience I suppose.

“Doncaster passed the ball well, we knew they had the extra man in the middle of the park. But I don’t remember our goalkeeper making too many saves.

“We changed it a bit after 55 or so minutes, by getting the extra body (Owen Garvan) in there. Owen gave us some more composure on the ball.

He gave us a little bit more in terms of his quality on the ball “But I think the game lacked a bit of quality, particularly in the final third. It needed someone just to pick out the right pass at the right time.

“It was kind of hit-and-miss from both teams, especially in the attacking third. We didn’t have that cutting edge, and we don’t have that. We have lacked that all season,” added Keane.

Ironically, it was Doncaster boss Sean O’Driscoll who chose to describe his side’s late penalty as “a soft one.” By contrast, Keane did not focus on the penalty decision, and Town keeper Brian Murphy admitted that he though it was a penalty.

O’Driscoll said: “In my view, the penalty was a soft one.

“I could see why the ref gave it, but if he had given it against me, then I would have been disappointed.

“Technically it was a penalty, because there was contact, but we have had stone-wall penalties not given this season, and I mean horrific ones not given.

“It was the one major decision of the game, and I think we got away with it.”

O’Driscoll believed that his side did enough to have claimed victory.

He continued: “We had enough pressure to have won the game.

“But we have missed a cutting edge, as we have done in our two seasons in the Championship. We needed a bit more guile to open them up.

“We had lost our previous three games, and yet we played twice as better in them as we did today.

“We said at half-time that it would be a mistake from us rather than Ipswich creating anything that would lead to a goal, and so it proved,” concluded O’Driscoll.