No overreaction to ‘maiden’ defeat
DUNDALK manager Stephen Kenny insists there will be no overreaction to Monday night’s first defeat of the season away to Derry City but said his side must bounce back immediately by returning to winning ways when they host St Patrick’s Athletic at Oriel Park on Saturday night (kick-off 7.45pm).
Despite taking a 16th minute lead through Dane Massey, the champions were pegged back by Nathan Boyle’s goal on the stroke of half-time before second half strikes from Barry McNamee and Ryan McBride secured the Candystripes a first victory over Dundalk in 15 matches.
The nature of the goals Dundalk conceded was particularly disappointing but despite the setback Kenny said he was still pleased with his side’s return of three wins from four outings to date.
‘We’ve got to make sure Dundalk are title challengers and we believe we are. There was a setback tonight but we’ve got to dust ourselves down.
‘We haven’t done too bad in the last four years. We’ve won the league three times. We’ve won the first three and lost one so we won’t overreact to one defeat.
‘We’ve had a very good start,’ he said.
‘We won our first three games against Shamrock Rovers, Sligo and Limerick. We were 1-0 up tonight and should have came in at half-time ahead and we should have been good enough to win the game but after that then it was probably a draw really and we conspired to lose it so we only have ourselves to blame in that regard.
‘Everything was going all right until half-time tonight but it was a bad goal to give away so we have to dust ourselves down, put it in perspective and get ourselves ready for Saturday and try and get ourselves back on track.
‘We got punished and we have to take it on the chin. We have to regroup and go again on Saturday.
‘If we bounce back and win on Saturday then it’s something we can live with but if we drop any more points obviously you’d prefer not to do that.
‘We could easily have drawn with Limerick and drawn tonight and come out with two points but by beating Limerick and losing tonight we got three but we would have preferred to get the six because we were 1-0 up.
‘If you concede the first goal here and you’re up against it then you say ‘that can happen’ but taking the lead and losing 3-1 was careless and we’ve had to pay the penalty for that,’ he said.
Dundalk could be boosted at the weekend by the return of Gary Rogers, Chris Shields and David McMillan from injury. While all three were on the bench in Buncrana, with the latter featuring late on for the first time this season, they have played little or no football between them as yet.
Kenny hopes to resolve that with a game against Institute on Wednesday night that is also likely to feature new signing Sean Hoare, who has yet to make his debut for the club since signing from St Pat’s before Christmas.
‘We’ve a game on Wednesday against Institute so we’ll give a few players a run in that,’ Kenny told The Argus.
‘Dave and Chris haven’t played at all so certainly they’ll be involved and possibly Sean Hoare as well.’
Of more worrying news for the Lilywhites is the news that captain Stephen O’Donnell is set to miss a few more weeks with an injury sustained in the season opener against Shamrock Rovers.
Asked for an update on the midfielder, Kenny said: ‘He will be out for a few more weeks.’
Of utmost importance to the manager right now is getting back to winning ways against a Pat’s side who have taken just one point from four outings to date.
‘They have a good squad,’ Kenny said of Liam Buckley’s side.
‘I haven’t seen them yet. We had someone at the game tonight but we just have to get ourselves right and make sure we’re right on Saturday and get ourselves ready for that.
‘It’s an important game for us now. We need to bounce back with a victory,’ he said.
Kenny admitted his disappointment at Monday’s defeat but reiterated there would be no overreaction to it.
‘We got the lead we wanted. It was a terrific header from Dane but really it was a cardinal sin conceding that goal before halftime and something we shouldn’t have done. It was disappointing from our point of view.
‘Obviously the other couple of goals were mistakes but we had a great chance through Tommy Stewart and Ciaran Kilduff just before that to take the lead.
‘We didn’t really concede many chances. Derry didn’t really have many chances in the match I didn’t feel but to concede three goals in the way we did was disappointing.
‘We can’t take it away from Derry. They have a good philosophy and I like the way they play. Fair play to them for winning the game. There was nothing in the game really. It was scrappy enough overall but we have to do better.
‘It’s a game we could easily have won. At 1-0 up we missed two good chances and just a speculative shot from 30 yards and we’re 2-1 down but that’s the way it goes.
‘The third goal was easily preventable as well so it’s disappointing from our point of view.
‘When you concede the goals we did you’re going to get punished. That’s the way it goes. We have to take it on the chin and bounce back quickly. We can’t overreact to it, We’ve just got to bounce back on Saturday against St Patrick’s at home,’ he said.