Dundalk must be wary of the chasing pack

SOCCER SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIV

WHILE Dundalk continue to pursue Cork City at the top of the SSE Airtricity League table, manager Stephen Kenny insists his side must also be wary of those looking to topple the top two.

Bray Wanderers, who visit Oriel Park this Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm), certainly fall into that category.

The Wicklow outfit have invested heavily over the off season and will make the trip to the Carrick Road venue just three points off the champions in third place.

Despite winning the last match between the sides at the Carlisle Grounds last August, Bray have never beaten Dundalk in Oriel Park during Kenny’s tenure. Nevertheless the manager feels his side face a real test in preserving that record against one of the pretenders to their crown.

It’s a big game for us against Bray,’ Kenny told The Argus.

‘They’ll be looking to push on and challenge this year so if we can get a big victory against Bray it would be terrific.

‘Bray are only three points behind us and they’ll be looking to go second themselves and try to beat us at home. They won in Derry last week so they’re going well and they’re a very experienced team.

‘There’s been a lot of investment there and they have a good team so we’ll get a really tough game in Oriel Park next Friday.’

Dundalk hope to have Patrick McEleney back from injury for the visit of the Seagulls. The Derry man only returned to training last Thursday and while he took his place on the bench for the victory over Finn Harps in Ballybofey, he wasn’t risked.

One player who did return, however, was club captain Stephen O’Donnell and while he is likely to start on the bench again on Friday, Kenny admitted it was good to have him back.

‘He’s only re-joined training on Tuesday, not a full session, and trained a bit on Thursday so he’s catching up on training after six weeks out from the Shamrock Rovers game but he’ll be important for us obviously.’

The one major doubt for the Bray game is Paddy Barrett, who is struggling with a groin problem at present.

On the centre half, Kenny said: ‘Paddy has a thigh strain. He tweaked it in the game against Cork and came on last week (against Drogheda) and fell on the ground and retweaked it.

‘We didn’t start him last week because of it but with Seán Gannon getting injured we had to throw him on. It’s not a serious injury but whether he’ll be back for Friday or not I don’t know.’

One player who has recently returned from injury with a bang is David McMillan and Kenny was full of praise for the striker after his two goal salvo against Finn Harps on Friday.

‘Dave McMillan was the standout player full stop.

‘He hadn’t been able to do a pre-season because of a knee issue but people don’t realise the toll of last season. Going right to December and the unprecedented run of games, really against medical advice, that took its toll with him and Chris Shields being unavailable until the last two weeks. They had no pre-season at all, not even a friendly game.

‘McMillan came back and comes on against Cork and gets a goal, got a great header last week and gets two tonight. He also hits the post with a header, hits the bar with a header and gets two big headers in his own box. Those were the sort of leaders that we were missing, players in the back four, Stephen O’Donnell and Patrick McEleney as well as Robbie Benson but he stood up tonight.

‘I thought Brian Gartland marshalled the back four very well and David came up with two big goals and was very unlucky not to get three. Apart from his goals, his all-round work was terrific.’

Kenny described the victory in Ballybofey as a ‘big win’ and said he learnt a lot about his side from the match.

‘It was a big win for us because it was a match I was concerned about.

‘I think the fact that we had six new signings in the starting lineup and a lot of young players like Jamie McGrath, Michael Duffy, Conor Clifford and Seán Hoare making his debut. Obviously it was a new partnership between Brian Gartland and Hoare. It was the first time that they played together and Chris Shields and Conor Clifford, it was only the second time they played together.

‘Niclas Vemmelund and McGrath, it was the first time they have linked up together and for Stewart and McMillan only the second time.

‘Because of all of that you’re not sure about how it’s going to go, especially when you get here and see that the pitch is almost unplayable. The pitch was very poor, as poor as I’ve seen now in a few years but we had to play on it.

‘It was about the mark of champions, how do you define the mark of champions. I asked the players beforehand and how I define it is the ability to adapt to every situation. If teams want to play us in a game of football we can outplay them, if they want to fight or come for a battle we have to show that we’re capable of dealing with that.

‘These were questions that were unknown to me in relation to the players involved. When we came here and seen the pitch I said ‘how are we supposed to play’ but so we showed our ability to do that and played very well tonight. We defended well, got two good goals. We could have got more but it was a big win,’ he said.

‘We have had to go to Cork twice in the last few weeks with the President’s Cup as well, we’ve had to go to Donegal twice and Sligo and we’ve got to go to Galway and we’re going to have to do them journeys twice. These are also factors that you have to overcome so it’s great to get that win.’

As well as the match against Bray, Dundalk are also in action on Easter Monday when they host UCD at Oriel Park in the EA Sports Cup (kick-off 5.00).

Kenny said there are a number of players who need games and it would be the ideal opportunity to give some of those a chance to impress, most notably Steven Kinsella.

‘It’s a game that some people need,’ said Kenny.

‘Obviously we have Steven Kinsella coming back last week from a groin injury. I’m looking forward to seeing him because he’s really talented. He’ll definitely start in that one.

‘We haven’t that big a squad now with all the injuries so a lot of the first team players will be playing in that game. Obviously anyone who needs to play will play.

‘We won’t have that many young players playing. Maybe Keith Dalton, Emmet Hughes and Carlton Ubaezuono are in contention but we’ll put out a strong team because against UCD it won’t be easy.’