Rogers hoping for better luck this time

GARY Rogers will be hoping luck is on Dundalk’s side when they renew their rivalry with Cork City this Saturday.

The last time the goalkeeper faced John Caulfield’s side was in last November’s FAI Cup final at the Aviva Stadium when he was helpless to prevent Sean Maguire’s deflected effort in the final minute of extra-time from trickling past him.

While that result still hurts deep down, Rogers is confident that Dundalk can inflict a first defeat of the season on the Rebels by showing them who the champions are at the weekend.

‘The cup final was a disappointing result,’ he said.

‘It was a freak goal and that’s all that separated us on the day. I thought we were probably the better side in the cup final and considering all we had to deal with that week that says a lot about the team that we are.

‘We are very confident we can beat any team on our day no matter who they are. We know that Cork are a good side but equally we’re a very good side too. I think if we play to the best of our abilities then hopefully we’ll come out on the right side of the result.’

Rogers said it was too early in the season for Saturday to be deemed a ‘must win’ but reiterated he was confident that Dundalk could get the job done.

‘It’s important to get something from the game,’ said Rogers.

‘Obviously it’s not the end of the world if we lose but it’s certainly our goal to go down there and get the win and tighten up that gap and hopefully go ahead of them. I wouldn’t say it’s a six pointer but it is important to put in a good performance and hopefully we’ll go down there and do that and get the win that we want.

‘It’s a massive opportunity to go down to Cork and pick up the bragging rights. It’s a good indication to see where we are at this stage. It is early but I think we’re doing really well. I know we were beaten by Derry but we’ll enjoy going down to Turner’s Cross. It’s a really good pitch, there will be a good atmosphere and obviously Cork will give us a good test.’

Rogers was making his first league appearance of the season on Saturday in the 3-0 win after St Patrick’s Athletic following a lay-off with a calf problem and he insisted it was ‘good to be back.’

He told The Argus: ‘It’s important that I didn’t rush back from the injury. It was the sort of injury you could re-tear so I was just happy to get the 90 minutes under my belt and not pick up another injury. Throughout my career I really haven’t had that many injuries. It was frustrating for me to be watching from the sidelines for the first couple of weeks but I’m delighted to be back in there now.

‘We had a game on Wednesday during the week so I got 90 minutes under my belt and it was nice to get that game time.

‘It’s great to get the win too after getting beaten during the week by Derry so it was impor- tant to get that victory.

‘It’s always important that you hit back with a result straight away. It could have gone either way on Monday night, it certainly wasn’t a 3-1 game, but we’ve responded really well. Pat’s are a good team and I’m sure they will start picking up results but we had to make sure that we approached the game properly and got a good result.’

Rogers praised his opposite number Conor O’Malley for keeping Liam Buckley’s side in the game for so long in the first half and also lavished praise on Patrick McEleney for his two goal haul in the second half that sealed the result.

‘It probably would have been a bit of an injustice if we didn’t pick up that goal in the first half. Conor had a really good game and kept us at bay but it was important to get that goal before the break and we really kicked on then in the second half. We started really well and Patrick McEleney scored two quality goals.

‘In any league I think they’d be raving about that first goal of his for the whole year.

‘It’s a tremendous goal but we know that Patrick is well capable of that. He does it all the time in training. He’s a terrific player and talent and it was a really good performance by him tonight.

‘I think he’ll score plenty more too, just hopefully he keeps fit. He has worked really hard in the off season and that will stand him in good stead for the rest of the season. Hopefully he keeps performing as he is,’ said Rogers.