Work on the training pitch pays off with Clifford goal

CONOR Clifford bagged his first goal for Dundalk in Monday’s EA Sports Cup victory over UCD and insisted there was more to come from him.

Only his 10th competitive appearance for the Lilywhites, the 25-year-old midfielder told The Argus he was delighted to get off the mark and admitted he hoped it would be the start of an upturn in fortunes for him.

‘I’m just delighted to get on the scoresheet and hopefully now I can build on that,’ he said.

‘I want to score goals and add goals to my game.

‘I’ve been working a lot in training on my finishing with Vinny Perth. I feel I have that in my locker, I just need to get the right opportunities and get in the right spaces on the pitch to get my shots off. I was just delighted to see one go in today.

‘I have a figure in my head that I want to aim for but I’ll keep it to myself. I feel if I get a run of games that I can score goals.

‘I do need to add more goals. I’ll be working as hard as I can on the training pitch practising and hopefully I can bring it into the game.’

The former Chelsea youth team captain also teased that there is much more to come from him.

‘I’ve only done okay in fairness,’he said when asked about his first 10 games with the Lilywhites.

‘I need to do an awful lot better and I’m confident I will once I get out there and get my confidence up. I’m feeling good, I’m feeling confident and fit and I’m confident I can score goals and do well. The best is yet to come I feel.’

Clifford admitted that the previous Friday’s defeat at home to Bray Wanderers was tough to take but urged his side to bounce back by beating Bohemians this weekend.

‘We were all really gutted losing that game to Bray,’ he said.

‘I know some of the decisions didn’t go our way, but we still should have won the game. We were really gutted but it was just important today to get back to winning ways.

‘I know we only won on penalties, but it’s still a win and now we have to get back to winning ways in the league on Friday.

‘We just have to concentrate on ourselves. Of course we’re worried about the gap but we just need to take each game as it comes, as cliched as that is, and pick up as many points as we can. We can’t afford to drop any more so we need to go on a run now and start winning some games.

‘Every game in this league is a battle. Everyone wants to beat us because of what the club have done in recent years so every game is tough. Bohs will be no different but we’ll be up for it and hopefully we can get the three points,’ he said.