Result is king to Super Mac

DUNDALK striker David McMillan insisted that results were more important than performances after his 13th minute strike helped the champions scrape past 10 man Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds last Tuesday night.

Despite the home side having captain Craig Roddan sent off after just nine minutes and conceding just four minutes later, Dave Robertson’s men finished the stronger to leave their opponents hanging on for a vital three points as they opened up a seven point lead at the top of the table.

By McMillan’s admission, Dundalk made tough work of the result having failed to add to their scoreline during a period of dominance before the break.

However, after surviving a tense finale, he insisted the result was the most important thing in the middle of a busy schedule for his side.

‘With the schedule it’s just about getting three points and moving on,’ he said.

‘We could have played brilliantly and drew 0-0 so it’s important to keep winning.

‘We came back from Poland and knew we had three really tough away games in the league against Wexford, Bohs and Sligo so we were delighted to pick up nine points from them.’

The 27-year-old admitted his side made tougher work of the victory though than they perhaps should have.

‘We should be better against 10 men. Particularly in the first half we created enough chances and I think we dominated. In the second half we probably didn’t move it well enough and there wasn’t enough movement between the players I don’t think but, as I said, for now we’ll just take the 1-0 and the three points.

‘It was a scrappy second half with not much chances at either end but we probably should have put it to bed in the first half. I think we had enough chances to do that but in the end we’re just happy to get three points. It’s a tough schedule so we’ll take any three points that come our way.’

McMillan’s decisive goal was his 14th in the league this season and 19th in all competitions. It arrived on 13 minutes in what was a fantastic team move.

Patrick McEleney picked out Ronan Finn who in turn slipped John Mountney in on the right. He then showed great composure to take Micheal Schlingermann out of the equation by squaring for McMillan to tap home to an empty net.

It was far from his most brilliant finish this season but they all count.

‘It’s a tap in from me but I think it was a really good goal from the guys’ perspective,’ said the striker afterwards.

‘Patrick and Finner played a little one-two I think and slipped John in and in fairness to John he seen me and instead of taking it on himself he just squared it and I had a tap-in so it was a lovely goal and a lovely team move. I’ll take any type of goal to be honest.’

With Dundalk already on top in the early stages, their hope of victory were given a major boost when Sligo were reduced to 10 men on nine minutes when Craig Roddan was shown a straight red card for a late sliding challenge on Daryl Horgan. Given the wet conditions it perhaps looked a little worse than it was but referee Paul McLaughlin didn’t hesitate in dishing out his sixth red card of the season.

Roddan and team-mate Raffaele Cretaro were allowed play in the game despite sitting out just 21 minutes of Sligo’s postponed match with Finn Harps 72 hours earlier. After that incident, the visitors were already facing an uphill struggle when they fell behind just four minutes later.

Sligo were a goal down and a man down but almost pulled a goal back four minutes later when Liam Martin headed their first chance wide at the back post after getting on the end of an Achille Campion cross.

Dave Robertson’s side then had another big chance on 24 minutes. After a McEleney shot was blocked down by Gavin Peers, a long punt upfield took an awkward bounce in front of Gary Rogers, who had come out of his box to head clear. Instead the ball looped up in the air with Kieran Sadlier picking it up. However, after turning to shoot he saw his effort blocked at close range by Stephen O’Donnell with Rogers backtracking desperately towards his goal.

It was largely one way traffic after that with McEleney scuffing a shot wide before Horgan fired inches over the crossbar after cutting in from the left.

Horgan then squandered a fantastic chance on 37 minutes when a cross from Mountney deflected into his path to the right of goal but he blazed wide.

Two minutes before the break Horgan then turned provider with a superb ball into McMillan, who could only fire wide from close range.

Sligo were much more fired up at the start of the second half and while the best chance fell Dane Massey’s way five minutes after the restart when he headed McEleney’s corner down into the ground and wide, the home side grew in confidence the longer it remained at 1-0.

Subtitute Robbie Benson had a great chance to wrap up the win on 67 minutes when he got on the end of Mountney’s free kick but unfortunately he couldn’t keep it down.

After that the 100 or so Dundalk supporters who had made the trip to the north west were forced to live on their nerves.

The outstanding O’Donnell did superbly well to dispossess Campion after former Lilywhite Daniel Kearns had caught Brian Gartland in possession to break 15 minutes from the end.

The home side did survive a late scare of their own on 84 minutes when Michael Leahy cleared off the line after McMillan had beaten Schlingermann to Horgan’s cross.

However, Sligo kept pushing to the end with Rogers forced to save a low drive from Cretaro in stoppage time to seal the win.

It wasn’t pretty but it was three points, and a very important three points at that.