Win in Israel would

RONAN Finn is prepared to put his body on the line one more time to ensure Dundalk are celebrating a fantastic end to a brilliant year in Israel next week.

The midfielder was one of three doubts for last Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar at Tallaght Stadium along with Chris Shields and Stephen O’Donnell but the only one to make it through the full game.

Any chance of Shields participating was ended shortly before kick-off when illness saw him hand his spot on the bench over to Ciaran O’Connor, while O’Donnell’s evening ended prematurely just before half-time as a result of a hamstring injury.

Finn has been battling an Osteitis Pubis injury for some time and told The Argus after a frustrating night that it was becoming harder and harder just to get through games – not that you’d think it from his performances of late. ‘It is tough,’ he said. ‘You’re constantly fighting your body, literally. My stomach is torn to shreds. I’m afraid to get a skin because I know there’s going to be damage.

‘At this rate I need to get rehab on it. I’ve one more game and I’ll probably get a four or five week window and the plan is to look to be ready for February but I need those four or five weeks to have rehab and have a little break.

‘There are other boys with knocks too though. You just don’t want to miss them games. In your career they’re the ones you’ll look back on. We’ll probably look back on this one and say we let it slip.

‘AZ are a decent side but they’re not brilliant. It is probably the worst we’ve played in the group stages. We normally do well in Tallaght as well.’

Finn reiterated that he felt last Thursday’s game was ‘one we kind of let get away from us’ with the number of players on the treatment table in the build-up to the game not helping their cause as the side started slowly after 18 days out of action.

‘It possibly contributed to the slow start. I didn’t play in Brentford but you can’t replicate games like the one there in terms of tempo, atmosphere, importance and everything really.

‘We had been on a run of churning out games. I know that was difficult but I never complained about it and no one in the dressing room complained about it.

‘As players we were happy to keep going because we were winning. Once you’re winning it’s easy to keep going but that’s an excuse and I hate using excuses. We didn’t get a point or three points tonight. We got beaten and we let it get away from us.

‘We had a poor start and probably paid the price for that. Most of the games in Europe we have warmed into the game quite well but tonight we were a little bit sluggish.’

They’re a good side but I think we were good enough to get out of the game. Our performance didn’t merit that but on another night we could have got something from the game.

‘There wasn’t much in it. You could see them celebrating at the end. They know we’re a good side but they’ve come here and won and that’s hard to take.’

The 28-year-old also felt that Wout Weghorst’s scrappy winner after just nine minutes summed up his side’s luck.

‘It was a horrible goal to concede. There was no real guile to it,’ he said.

‘It’s not as if we got split open. They broke us down at different occasions but that wasn’t one of them.

‘It was just one of them things, you’d nearly rather had you been split open by good play. You’d probably respect that a bit more but it was a bit unfortunate. I thought we had chances ourselves to get into the game but it just wasn’t dropping for us. Shots were being blocked or flying by the post. It was probably just a game where we let it get away.’

Finn was one of those who saw chances go just off target – a long range drive in the first half and a late chip that had goalkeeper Sergio Rochet scrambling. It was similar to his experience in the recent FAI Cup final where he was so close on a couple of occasions from scoring.

It has been a frustrating few months in front of goal for a man who started the campaign with eight goals in his first 16 outings. His header in the FAI Cup semi-final replay victory away to Derry City at the Brandywell is his only goal since June 24th though. Now he is determined to finish the season with a flourish by bagging his first ever European goal in what will be his 29th European appearance against Maccabi Tel Aviv next month.

‘I had a couple of chances, one in the first half that went by the post and the chip at the end. They keep just going by the post for me at the minute,’ he signed.

‘Israel would be the perfect time to end the run.

‘They’re not far away. I nearly wish they were going into the sky but they’re not, they’re flying by the post on most occasions. It’s not for the want of trying I’ll tell you, but that happens. You just have to keep persevering and keep getting into the box.

‘I’m not worried about that though. If you keep performing at a high level then goals will come.’

While Dundalk’s fate is no longer in their own hands, Finn is confident they can still advance in style in Netanya Stadium next week.

‘AZ are a good team but Zenit will probably want to finish with full points so we still have a big chance if that happens.

‘We know we’ve already beaten Maccabi. Going over there knowing you have to win is a good place to be in. A draw might do but that’s cagey. Stephen always plays to win and it would be epic if we could do it. It’s there to be done and it would be the perfect way to end the year.

‘We had to go to Israel and get a result anyway. We could have beaten AZ and still gone out so we’ll go to Israel and it’ll be epic if we can get through,’ he said.