Finn backs Dundalk to turn things around
SHAMROCK Rovers midfielder Ronan Finn has backed his old club to turn things around after he played a pivotal role in inflicting a fifth defeat of the season on Dundalk at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.
The midfielder, who departed Oriel Park to return the Hoops before Christmas, scored the opening goal in a 2-1 win for Stephen Bradley’s side and described it as ‘big win’ for them.
Asked did he know why things weren’t clicking for his own side at present, Finn was at a loss to come up with the answer but said he expected Dundalk to be back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
‘I don’t know,’ he said when asked on his old club’s struggles.
‘It’s difficult to say because I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. I know they’re an unbelievable group and they work tremendously hard and that Stephen is a tremendous manager up there but I’m not too sure because I’ve left and I’m not too sure what’s going on.
‘Cork seem to be setting a very high standard and we’re all looking up at them and we’ve all got to catch them. I’m sure Dundalk will bounce back.
‘It was a big win for us. Obviously we’re coming into the middle third of the campaign now. Dundalk beat us up there so it was nice to get them back. We’re already three points further on and that’s the way you look at it this year. It’s nip and tuck and there’s not a lot between a lot of teams but we were on the right side of the result tonight.’
Finn celebrated his goal against his old employers but said that was as much down to relief than because of who the opposition were.
‘I enjoyed it just because we needed it,’ he said.
‘I celebrate every goal but we really, really needed that tonight. We kicked on from it which was the difference because a lot of times this season we have scored to go 1-0 up and haven’t kicked on. We managed to maintain our foothold in the game.
‘We invited Dundalk on a bit in the second half but we limited them to not that many chances.
‘Dundalk are still a top, top side and you can’t give them chances because they have players like Patrick (McEleney) who can just light it up in an instant. I have full respect for them because I obviously know them very well but we limited them to very little and thought we were good value for our win,’ he said.