Time our players got Ireland’s call
DUNDALK defender Brian Gartland has called for some of his team-mates to receive international recognition in the wake of their European performances.
The 29-year-old centre back singled Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle out for particular praise after the Lilywhites emerged from the AFAS Stadion with a 1-1 draw against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.
The result saw Stephen Kenny’s side send shockwaves around Europe yet again after similarly impressive displays in the Champions League qualifiers throughout the summer.
Gartland told The Argus that Dundalk’s latest display proves the wins over FH Hafnarfjordur and BATE Borisov were no fluke and showed that many of his team-mates could play at a higher level.
“Daryl Horgan was excellent,” said Gartland.
“He was beating two, three and four players at a time and he has shown that at every level we step up to he is still the stand out.
“We have got special players in our team and we have such a good team as a unit. Andy Boyle beside me was immense and he is immense every week. He has been like that since I’ve been with him over three years. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves but he makes it look easy and does the basics and makes it look so simple,” he said.
Despite the celebrations amongst supporters of a result that earned Dundalk €120,000, €10,000 more than if they won the league, Gartland insists the Lilywhites need to keep their feet on the ground and improve further ahead of their next Europa League tie at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv on September 29th.
“We can’t get carried away with ourselves because in the first half we were great but we did give them chances and we were lucky because they had a goal ruled out for offside and they hit the post. They did get in behind us once or twice but we caused them problems as well.
“We came into this group to compete. We didn’t come in just to keep the scores down or show that we’re not far off the standard. We want to show that we’re at the standard. We’ll learn from mistakes tonight and we’ll look to the next game. We’re at home in the next game and we’ll be going to get all three points hopefully,” said Gartland.