Gartland predicting bright future for former Derry star

BRIAN Gartland insists Patrick McEleney can be a huge player for Dundalk in the second half of the season if he can put his fitness problems behind him.

The pre-Christmas recruit from Derry City has endured a frustrating start to life at Oriel Park with just four league starts and four substitute appearances prior to Friday night’s 2-0 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic.

However, his late winner against Wexford Youths at the end of last month and his assist for Ciaran Kilduff’s opener against Liam Buckley’s men on Friday gave Lilywhites supporters a glimpse at his undoubted talent.

Now his team-mate Gartland believes he can be like a new signing for the champions heading into the second half of the campaign.

‘You can see his touches and turns,’ the defender beamed about McEleney.

‘His explosiveness though is something I never knew he had from playing against him until he came here. The speed he can burst off with for the first five yards, you just can’t stay with him. You don’t know if he’s going to go on his left foot or right foot, so it’s so hard to defend against. He can shoot, cross and everything.

‘He made the first goal tonight and it showed all his talent. He’s a massive, massive player for us and hopefully he can stay fit and be a big player for us,’ said Gartland.

After the defeat against Cork City prior to the break, the centre half was delighted to see his side return to winning ways and is hopeful they can keep that run going in the forthcoming matches away to Derry City and at home to Longford Town ahead of their Champions League clash with FH Hafnarfjarðar next month.

‘It was a brilliant win,’ said Gartland.

‘I thought we played very well. We were solid and didn’t give many chances away. We were on the front foot for the whole game.

‘They’re a good side so you’ve got to keep your concentration and especially after the disappointment of the game before the break to come back and get a clean sheet and a good win against a top side was all we could ask for really.

‘We did well when we were in Europe last year. At home games have been tricky. A lot of the teams sit in and they’ve made it hard for us so it does take until the 60th minute or 70th minute sometimes to break them down and tire them out.

‘We just need to keep moving the ball and have patience and believe in ourselves and keep playing.

‘We did that tonight and we have such talent going forward.

‘Some of the lads out there are some of the best lads I’ve ever played with or seen playing in the country. They can create something out of nothing at any stage.’

The 29-year-old is well aware though that Dundalk will get nothing easy on Friday night when they make the trip to the Brandywell to face a Derry City side who have already claimed a point off them this season.

‘They’ve done very well. They made it tough for us here but we should have beat them. There’s no qualms about that but we gave away a silly goal.

‘It can be hard to break teams down here and if you give away a goal it makes it even harder.

‘Going up there, it’s a hard place to go. That’s a cliche because it’s always said about the Brandywell but it’s true. Even if they’re not on form it’s still a hard place to go and get a result.

‘We’re going for three points and we want to get through the next two games with full points before we start thinking about Europe. We’ll only start to think of it after these games are done,’ he said.