Super Mac doesn’t want the goal rush to stop now
DUNDALK striker David McMillan is hopeful that there are many more goals to come from this season after notching up his 20th goal of the season in all competitions against Derry City on Friday night.
The 27-year-old’s neat finish from Daryl Horgan’s pass on 59 minutes was his 15th in the league this year and added to his five Champions League goals.
However, with at least 13 more matches for Dundalk to play this season McMillan (pictured celebrating his goal on Friday night) is hopeful of adding to what is already a career best tally for a season.
“It’s a nice landmark,” he told The Argus.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve done it in one year. It’s something that I’ve been striving to do but I don’t want to stop now.
“I think we’ve got seven more league games, at least one more cup game and five European games so there’s plenty of football to go and hopefully I can keep it going and get a few more.”
McMillan insisted every member of the Lily-Lilywhites squad was capable of chipping in with goals though afterter watching John Mountney level the match against Derry City on Friday with his second of the month before Brian Gartland put the champions ahead four minutes later with his third in four matches.
“Stephen has spoken in the past about how we can get goals from all across the pitch,” said McMillan.
“Brian has obviously missed a big chunk of the season with his wrist injury but he has shown coming back how much of a threat he is. He got one tonight and one on Tuesday but he’ll tell you he should have had two or three more. He’s just such a threat in the box but even if the opposition but two on him then someone else will get a chance like tonight when Dane (Massey) was unlucky to hit the crossbar.
“Across the back four and anywhere else on the pitch we can get goals and hopefully for us that will continue when things start to get even bigger for us.”
The striker insisted the win over Derry was the perfect response to only drawing at home to Shamrock Rovers three days earlier.
“It was a bit of a disappointment to only draw on Tuesday.” he said.
“It was still a good performance I felt. Looking at the game back we had some good chances and probably could have won it by a couple but in the end I think we showed a lot of character tonight after going 1-0 down so early.
“It would have been easy to fall apart a little bit but I think we showed our determination and our character to get the win. It was nice to get two quick goals to turn the game around and then a third to seal it in the second half.”
McMillan was also full of praise for man of the match Daryl Horgan, who stole the show on the night.
“He has been like that all year really. It’s great that he’s getting all the plaudits that he is because he works phenomenally hard.
“There’s a question in our match programme who is the hardest worker and I think every single person this year has said Daryl Horgan. He’s out on the pitch first at training and off it last. He’s always working on his crossing and his dribbling. We see it week in, week out the work he puts in and he has been phenomenal for us.
“For me as a strikstrikerer it’s great to see him on the ball because you always know he’s going to create something for you. He has been brilliant for us.” Next up for Dundalk is Thursday’s Europa League tie at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv in Tallaght Stadium. After an impressive draw away to AZ Alkmaar in their Group D opener, Stephen Kenny’s side are aiming to become the first Irish team to win a group game in Europe.
While McMillan had yet to do his homework on the Israeli outfit, he admitted it would not be an easy game against Shota Arveladze’s men.
“That’s what everyone is striving to do and that would be fantastic if we could win but they were 3-0 up against Zenit as well so I’m sure they’re a fantastic team.
“They were in the Champions League last year so I’m sure they have great pedigree. It will be a tough, tough game but as I said we’ll do our homework and hopefully we can get a good result on Thursday.” he said.