Brandywell lesson stands to Lilywhites in Tallinn tight spot

DERRY might not necessarily count as a European trip but Robbie Benson believes the lessons learnt from a trip North in May stood to Dundalk in Tallinn on Thursday.

The Lilywhites were visiting the Brandywell for the first time earlier in the summer when they fell behind to a Darren Cole strike after a whirlwind start by the Candystripes.

Just as in that game, Levadia started with all guns blazing at the Kadriorg on Thursday but Benson said the lessons from that Derry game – which Dundalk went on to win 4-1 – stood to his side in the heat of European battle in Estonia.

‘The first time we played Derry in the Brandywell it was sort of similar,’ he said.

‘We didn’t weather the storm then and they went one ahead but today Gary kept us in it with a couple of saves. That day we said we needed to slow the game down and try to control it a bit more and we did that after about 15 or 20 minutes. We kind of bossed the game from that period and created two or three good chances where we probably should have scored from at least one.

‘Dylan then got a great goal in the second half at the back stick and that has really set us up now for next week.

‘Dylan probably needs to score more of those goals at the back stick. We’ve been trying to get him to do that because he’s quick enough to get up there and to go and gamble. I think he could score 10 goals a season from just doing that.’

While many expected Dundalk to win more comfortably, Benson said he’d have taken 1-0 beforehand.

‘You can’t take it for granted because away victories are hard to come by in Europe,’ said the Athlone native.

‘Year on year you don’t see too many of them from Irish clubs so it’s a good win I think.

‘Expectations were probably high of us here and people

probably thought it would be a comfortable victory but it was far from that. They’re a proper good side who are capable of causing us problems. It’s a great win though and something to take back to Oriel next week.’

Perhaps the one regret is that Dundalk failed to add a second. Benson had a great chance blocked at the end of the first half by Maksim Podholjuzin while goalkeeper Sergei Lepmets was on hand to deny Pat Hoban five minutes from the end.

Of his chance, Benson said: ‘I have a good relationship with Mickey (Duffy) and he knows when I call for it that I’m open. It was just an incredible block. I thought it was in when I hit it. That would have left us 1-0 up at half-time and would have really settled us down but we’re just happy that that didn’t come back to haunt us at the end of the game.

‘The pitch was dry and it really slowed up for Pat’s chance. If there was any sort of dew on the grass the keeper wouldn’t have got there in time so it was disappointing from that point of view but going back to Oriel with a 1-0 win, if you’d offered us that at the start we’d have taken it.

‘We’re a good side at home. You can’t take these European games for granted. We need to make sure we get the job done and that there’s a big crowd out in Oriel,’ he said.