Feat still lls Brian
BRIAN Gartland is determined to end the league campaign on a high by inflicting a dose of their own medicine on Galway Utd on Friday night.
One of the most heartbreaking moments for Dundalk this season came at the end of April when a 93rd minute Gary Shanahan strike deflected off Gartland and past Gary Rogers to hand the Tribesmen a shock 2-1 win – their first of the season.
That result saw Dundalk players crash to the earth in devastation as they fell 12 points behind Cork City in the title race, ground they would ultimately never make up.
Fast forward six months and Galway Utd are in desperate need of a third straight league win over Dundalk at Eamonn Deacy Park. Shane Keegan’s side need a victory on Friday and a favour from either Drogheda Utd or Derry City in their respective matches against Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic to avoid relegation back to the First Division.
While you can only have sympathy with Galway’s plight, that is of little concern to Gartland. His main concern is finishing the league campaign on a high to ensure Dundalk are ready for battle in the FAI Cup final against Cork City the following weekend.
“We don’t want to lose any game. We always want to win and it’s no different next week,” he said.
Gartland admitted that the defeat in Galway earlier in the season still haunts him but said he feels Dundalk have come a long way since then.
“The manner of it as well, it was deflected in,” he said reliving that infamous night.
“At that stage there were a few weeks where just everything was going against us and they got a bit of luck but that’s long ago. We’re a completely different side from then I think.”
That said the 30-year-old knows Dundalk need to be a lot better than they were against Bohemians on Friday night where an Ismahil Akinade goal a minute before half-time inflicted a first defeat on the side since going down to Shamrock Rovers on July 23rd.
“It was a bad first half from ourselves,” he said. “We didn’t deal with the conditions and how Bohs played. Defensively we were quite poor. We had a good bit of the ball but we didn’t do enough with it. A couple of strikes from distance gave them a little bit of trouble but that was it.
“In the second half it was hard playing against the elements. We did work the ball better I thought but we didn’t punish them in the final third.
“The chance for them was well taken but there were a few errors on our part that were sloppy. It’s not the level we expect ourselves to be at.