Rogers insists Lilywhites are still in the driving seat

DUNDALK goalkeeper Gary Rogers insists his side will take Friday night’s defeat to Cork City “on the chin” and has challenged them to come back stronger after the break.

Stephen Dooley’s first-half strike means the Lilywhites’ lead at the top of the table is cut to the minimum and while that will prove a sore point for the Dundalk players over the break, Rogers is confident that his side can put it behind them quickly.

“Obviously it’s a disappointing result,” he said.

“Getting beaten by our closest rivals is never an easy one to take, but we’re big boys, we’ll be able to take it on the chin and get up and move on to come back stronger now after the break.”

One of the key turning points in the game was the sending-off of Chris Shields, with Rogers admitting that he was unsure whether the midfielder should have been dismissed or not.

“From my point of view it’s hard to know. With the benefit of people having seen it on television people will know whether or not it warranted a red card.

“You look at the stage it is in the game and sending somebody off kind of ruins the game in a way, especially when it is borderline. I don’t think anyone can say it was a definitive red card or not, so when it is borderline I think the referee should err on the side of caution and maybe go with the yellow, but it wasn’t to be and we had to live with that decision and try and get something out of the game.”

Rogers praised Dooley for his goal but was disappointed that Dundalk couldn’t reply with one of their own following a strong finish to the game.

“He did well for himself to create the opportunity and he finished it well then in the far corner. It’s one of those things, we probably didn’t start that well and we got punished.

“Having said that, we came back into it in the second half. With 10 men it is always a mountain to climb, but we stayed in the game and gave ourselves that opportunity to go and get something out of the game.

“It’s just unfortunate, their keeper came out and missed one and they cleared it off the line and Ciaran Kilduff had a good chance with a volley. We just didn’t take the opportunities.”

Rogers also said that he was confident Dooley would miss his penalty mid-way through the second half after revealing that neither he nor Sean Maguire, who scored one in Oriel Park earlier in the season, wanted to take it.

“To be honest with you I knew he didn’t fancy taking it because I seen himself and Sean Maguire discussing who was going to take it. Seanie didn’t want to take it because he missed his last one and I know the side he goes so I knew he wasn’t that happy about it,” said the 34-year-old.

“I had my mind made up to stay up as long as I could to not make it easy for him by going one way or the other, but in the end I decided to go left and he put his foot through it and blasted it over the bar. It allowed us the chance to try and really push on in the last 15 minutes to try and get something. Unfortunately the chances that we created, we just couldn’t take them on the night.”

Despite the defeat, Rogers insists Dundalk still have the edge in the title race and is looking forward to the second half of the season. “It’s all to play for,” he said. “We’re one point clear and it’s a great position to be in. We’ll take a little break and recharge the batteries and come back then and we’ve a trip away with the team. We’ll really focus on the league games when we get back and obviously Europe as well.”