Kenny left with a lot to ponder for derby
DUNDALK manager Stephen Kenny faces a number of injury concerns for this Friday night’s first Louth derby of the season against Drogheda Utd at Oriel Park (kick-off 7.30pm, live on RTÉ Two).
As many as four players who featured in the 2-1 defeat away to Cork City at the weekend could miss the clash with the Boynesiders, as the champions look to get back to winning ways.
Robbie Benson had a scan on Monday on the hamstring injury that forced him off early against Cork and while Kenny did not know the outcome of that test when he spoke to The Argus, he said the prognosis was a lay-off of between 4-6 weeks.
Ciaran Kilduff is also suspended following his red card in Turner’s Cross while Paddy Barrett and Patrick McEleney are carrying knocks with the manager admitting it was ‘hard to say’ whether they’d make it back for the clash with Drogheda or not.
To add to Dundalk’s injury concerns, Stephen O’Donnell, Steven Kinsella and Shane Grimes all remain sidelined while Sean Hoare is still not training according to his manager despite being an unused substitute in recent matches.
The one silver lining is that Conor Clifford will be available for selection after having to be substituted early in the second half against Cork with concussion fears after taking a ball to the face at close range.
Kenny said the midfielder was ‘just dazed’ by the incident but said he would not be able to train until Thursday due to the protocols surrounding head injuries.
‘We’ve had good fortune with injuries in recent years but we’re just having a real tough run of it at the moment,’ said Kenny.
‘Some are legacy injuries from last season’s punishing schedule but then you lose the likes of Robbie Benson for 4-6 weeks when he is just going for a tackle. He was a definite loss from the game on Saturday as he has probably been our best player so far this season along with Patrick McEleney.’
Having fallen six points behind Cork following their loss at the weekend, Dundalk will be hoping to bounce back by putting a winning run together in the coming weeks but Kenny says there will be no looking beyond Drogheda on Friday.
‘We can’t look beyond them at the moment,’ he said.
‘We’re down a number of players and have to pick ourselves up now. We were disappointed to lose to Derry and Cork but we’ve won our three matches in Oriel and there has been a good atmosphere in all three.
‘I’m hoping the fact that it’s on TV and there’s an earlier kick-off that it won’t take away from the occasion.
‘Drogheda have six points on the board already and beat Galway and St Patrick’s so they’ve had a couple of good wins already.
‘They are a side who play with good spirit and Pete Mahon will have them well organised.
‘Derby games can be frenetic but hopefully we can make it four wins at home on the night.
‘We’ve had a lot of tough games in the derby since I came here. People always point to our 4-1 defeat in 2014 but we won then 7-0 later in the year so some of the results have been bizaare. There has been a lot of close games between the two sides though and we’ll have to be at our best on Friday because Drogheda will be well drilled and keen to do well,’ said Kenny.
The manager admitted he had some key decisions to make ahead of the game.
‘Drogheda are tough opponents and I’m not sure what my team will be at this minute in time.
‘A few of the new signings will have to come into the reckoning and show what they are made of.
‘David McMillan should be fit to start too. He didn’t play any football in pre-season because he had a lot of pain in his knee. He went for various tests and had a couple of different injections to try and alleviate the pain but the first real football he played was a friendly against Institute.
‘He came on then against St Pat’s and looked a bit rusty but he trained well last week and came on and got a good goal against Cork so hopefully that will give him confidence,’ said the manager.
Reacting to Saturday’s defeat against Cork City, Kenny said he was hugely disappointed with the goals his side gave away in the game but felt his side should have had a penalty on 34 minutes when Ciaran Kilduff was felled by Mark McNulty in the area.
‘I watched the game back and I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game. Goals can give people a different perception of a game. They see someone has two and just presume they are on top.
‘The key moment was Rob Rogers not giving us a penalty with the scoreline 1-0. It’s an easy decision and the game would have been much different at 1-1 than 2-0.
‘I also thought Ciaran Kilduff’s second yellow was harsh. You can argue he was late but it was much less a yellow than Garry Buckley’s challenge on Brian Gartland or Alan Bennett kicking John Mountney in the face. Conor McCormack made a lot of it though.
‘It was disappointing to lose the game but we’ve just got to dust ourselves down now and get back to winning ways. We’ve conceded poor goals and we’ll have to tighten up in that regard but we have 27 opportunities to redeem ourselves and the first of those is on Friday,’ said Kenny.