Rogers is closing in on Ollie’s European appearance record
GARY Rogers has more reasons than personal honours to hope that last week’s trip to Estonia was not his last of the year.
Should he start as expected against Levadia Tallinn at Oriel Park on Thursday night then the goalkeeper will move within four of equalling his PFAI colleague Ollie Cahill’s record of 41 European appearances.
Rogers would no doubt love to surpass the former Shelbourne, Cork City and Drogheda Utd player but he knows that if he does it bodes well for Dundalk FC as well.
“If I could do that this year then it would be the sign of a really good year because you’d have to have six or seven games played in Europe,” he told The Argus in the Kadriorg Stadium at the full-time whistle on Thursday.
“It will be a big challenge to do that because every time you play European opposition it is always tough and you could see that. This was a side that people were expecting us to win against but there’s never an easy game in Europe and I don’t think too many Irish sides go into a European game that they’re expected to win.
“You have to give this team the respect they deserve and hopefully now we’ll be able to see it through in the second leg.
“It’s always good to get an away goal and obviously an away win is even better again so we’d be very happy with the position we’re in. It could have been better but equally so going out beforehand you would have taken a 1-0 win to take back home.”
Rogers played a pivotal role in ensuring Dundalk take a lead back to Oriel Park when he made a smart double save at his near post after Pavel Marin’s cross had deflected off Brian Gartland in the second half. While Dundalk are in the driving seat ahead of Thursday’s second leg, he insists the Lilywhites can’t afford to take their eye off the ball.
“It just reminded me of Tallaght, the deflected one there but I was lucky enough to get to it and then the second one,” he said of his saves.
“You’re always going to have a couple of chances and they had a couple of shots from distance in the first half. I thought we dealt with them quite well. They are strong in the air and they put a lot of balls in the box. They’re good opposition so it’s no foregone conclusion that you’ll go through in the tie.
“We’ve been down 1-0 in ties before and gone through so it’s all to play for. We’re in a good position though going into the second leg.”
The one regret is that Dundalk failed to add to Dylan Connolly’s goal but Rogers remains confident of finishing the job in Oriel Park this week.
“You’d have been hoping to take advantage of them chances but it wasn’t to be,” said the Meath man.
“We’ll have learned a little bit more about them today and they’ll have learned a little more about us but we’ll have to come up with something different to break them down more in the return leg. I think we gave away a lot of ball today which wouldn’t be normal for us but hopefully we’ll be better prepared for playing them again on Thursday.
“I think you have to be confident in your own ability to go and finish the tie. A lot of players have plenty of experience in Europe and have won big games and you’d hope that that experience will see you through in the second leg,” he said.