O’Donnell feels Lilywhites left some room for improvement

DUNDALK might have earned plenty of plaudits for their performance against Zenit St Petersburg over the last two games in Europe but captain Stephen O’Donnell feels there is still more to come from the League of Ireland champions.

The 30-year-old was a half-time substitute for John Mountney on the night but despite seeing his side equalising soon after through Daryl Horgan, he couldn’t prevent Giuliano from securing the win for Zenit just as he had done in Tallaght a fortnight earlier.

O’Donnell, like the rest of his teammates was left to rue missed chances - particularly those from John Mountney and Patrick McEleney that came off the woodwork in either half - but admitted lady luck did not favour them on the night.

‘We had our chances especially with Patrick hitting the post with a good effort. They had a good few chances too but overall I thought we could have played better than what we played tonight.

‘John hit the post with a cross in the first half too and when you’re playing against these teams you need them efforts to be going in.

‘They’re a good side and had a good few opportunities but when you go so close I suppose you are disappointed. That’s the way it goes. Football at this level, you’ll get punished for sloppy mistakes.

‘‘We’ve given away sloppy goals but if you had told us this time last year or two years ago that we’d be gutted with a 2-1 defeat away to Zenit St Petersburg then you know you’re on the right track.

‘We don’t want any pats on the back after getting zero points from two games. I think we can play better than we did tonight. It would be worse if we played to the maximum of our ability and got beat because then you’d say where do we go from here. There’s plenty of scope for improvement I think,’ said the 30-year-old.

While Zenit’s opening goal came from a mistake at the back, O’Donnell insisted that can’t be used as an excuse for losing given Dundalk got back on level terms through Daryl Horgan.

‘That can happen at any level but we got ourselves back into the game. We got back level and had a chance to push on and do something.

‘We were under pressure but everyone defended well. It was disappointing to concede another sloppy goal and then with Fats (Patrick McEleney) hitting the post late on you would be disappointed.

‘We’ve been very competitive again tonight but I suppose we’ve gone beyond the stage of being competitive. We want to pick up points but the draw in the other game suits us well and it’s now a mini play-off between us and the other two teams in the last two games.’

While Dundalk appear to be in the driving seat to join Zenit in the last 32 given their performances to date in the competition, O’Donnell warned people not to get too ahead of themselves ahead of the match with AZ Alkmaar on November 24th and the trip to Israel to face Maccabi Tel Aviva on December 8th.

‘We have to be realistic,’ said the 30-year-old.

‘We have the smallest budget in the Europa League, they have a massive budget. That’s just the black and white of it.

‘You’re going to be under the cosh and it’s just about whether you can ride that. We are confident of creating our own chances.

‘I think we are second at the minute. We’ve Alkmaar in the next game and it’s a little play-off between ourselves, Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel Aviv and may the best team win going into the last few games.’