VINNY SETS THE RECORD

DUNDALK FC boss Vinny Perth has strongly rejected suggestions that the SSE Airtricity League champions have been lobbying other clubs to start the season from scratch.

A report in The Irish Sun on Sunday claimed that the Lilywhites wanted the five games already played in the league in February and March to be axed and for the campaign to be started afresh with two rounds of 18 matches played.

However, speaking to The Argus that evening, Perth said the article was ‘not a reflection of the opinions of the club.’

Dundalk had been criticised for their supposed stance with some suggesting it was a tactic to ensure they were back on a level playing field with current league leaders Shamrock Rovers, who top the table by three points after beating the champions 3-2 in Tallaght Stadium at the end of February.

‘The headline is poor,’ Perth said, when asked about it.

‘If you read the piece it’s more balanced but we’re not looking to restart the season, we’re looking to finish the season and they’re two different things.

‘We’re three points behind on the pitch and deservedly so but we’re also six, seven and eight points ahead of other rivals as well.’

The manager clarified that it was Dundalk’s preference to play as many games as possible in the league season.

‘There is only one offer on the table at the minute and that is to finish the season by the end of October, which is effectively 13 games.

‘We do feel there should be at least an option two, if not an option three, on the table and with the big announcement on Friday night of extra funding for Irish sport, the question we think should be asked is can that help the League of Ireland fulfil the very minimum 27 games, which would mean 22 more?

‘If some clubs can ask for no relegation then we can ask for an extended season and I don’t think that’s rude or there’s anything wrong with it but to be clear we’re three points behind and deservedly so.’

Perth said that while he understood there would be differing opinions on the right way to restart the season, taking points off teams was nothing something he or the club were pushing for.

‘The piece doesn’t reflect our opinion. For too long people were self serving and League of Ireland people just cared about themselves but we need to pull together as best we can.

‘If you read the pieces I had done throughout last week, I happened to be in The Sun, The Star and The Mirror this week and there was no criticism of any of those pieces but this headline has grabbed a lot of attention I believe and it’s not a good reflection of where we are as a club. You can’t speak about sporting integrity and then suggest we take points off people as well.

‘There has to be give and take though. At the moment there only appears to be take where some people are looking for no relegation and others want two up and that kind of thing but we’re just making the suggestion that can the league be extended beyond October and at least then we’d get a bit more of a balanced view about who the best team is, who the worst team is and who the top four are.’

Perth also joked that some of his players, including top scorer Patrick Hoban and

Preliminary round: 8 and 11 August First qualifying round: 18/19 August Second qualifying round: 25/26 August Third qualifying round: 15/16 September Play-offs: 22/23 and 29/30 September

Group stage: 20/21 and 27/28 October, 3/4 and 24/25 November, 1/2 and 8/9 December

Preliminary round: 20 August First qualifying round: 27 August Second qualifying round: 17 September Third qualifying round: 24 September Play-offs: 1 October

Group stage: 22 and 29 October, 5 and 26 November, 3 and 10 December

potential Puskas Award nominee Jordan Flores, wouldn’t be too happy if the first five games were axed from the records.

‘I’d be worried about Jordan but also Pat Hoban had started the season on fire and if you know anything about Pat he takes great pride in his goals and rightly so.

‘I want him thinking that way. He has his own targets so he’ll want them five goals to count.

‘We’re not looking to expunge any records though. We’re looking to have at least an option B on the table,’ he said.

BACK IN ACTION

PERTH, meanwhile, has welcomed the confirmation that his side will be in Champions League action in mid-August.

UEFA confirmed last week that the first qualifying round for the 2020/21 season would take place on August 18th or 19th with the first three qualifying rounds in the Champions League set to be one-legged affairs.

With no date set in stone for the return of the SSE Airtricity League, Perth said that having a concrete date to work towards would give the players something to focus on following their recent return to training.

‘There was a concern about Europe, of that there was no doubt,’ said Perth.

‘Four weeks ago we probably didn’t see anyone flying in or out of Ireland but most of Europe is open now, which is good.

‘It’s a real positive to have confirmation of what is happening. It’s a goal date that we can work towards and plan towards and it’s really good to have that. It gives us a target.’

Perth said the prospect of Europe on the horizon would keep players focused over the coming weeks.

‘It has been fine for the first couple of weeks because ultimately they’re just glad to be back on the pitch but I’m not sure how long that would have been the case if there was no return date for the league and Europe wasn’t there or thereabouts.

‘Now that we have a date the players will have to stay focused because little things like making the match day squad will become important now because we have probably more in our squad than can make the match day squad for Europe.

‘Players will have to play themselves into form now but fortunately we’ve got the strength in depth in our group that even our own personal training for the last couple of weeks, the quality has been of the highest level so much so that we’re willing to play each other in 11v11 games over looking for friendlies.

‘As much as we want some friendlies, we believe we can get enough quality from playing amongst ourselves for the first couple of weeks anyway.’

Perth confirmed that 11v11 games training were permitted from this week.

‘We’ve got the permission to do it from this week but it is within reason. There’s a certain amount of things like corners and free kicks into the box where there is real physical contact is not overly recommended but 11v11 is now permitted,’ he said.

DRAW IS CRUCIAL

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THE importance of the draw in Europe could be more crucial than ever for Dundalk after UEFA last week confirmed the set up for the 2020/21 European Qualifiers.

A meeting last Wednesday confirmed that Vinny Perth’s side would be in action in their first round Champions League qualifier on either August 18th or 19th with the draw due to take place the week beforehand.

The big change is that all ties up to the play-off round will be one-legged, with the first team drawn from the hat set to play at home.

Off the field, the good news is that there will be no cut to European prize money with any teams who have to travel and miss out on a home gate set to be compensated accordingly.

While that is good from a financial perspective, the importance of a home draw could be massive for Dundalk and the other League of Ireland sides in Europe.

Dundalk’s next game in Europe will be their 75th but they have own just five times away from home since becoming the first Irish club to win away in Europe when beating FC Zurich in 1963.

Since then there were wins against Linfield in 1979, Jeunesse Esch and Hajduk Split in 2014 and most recently against Levadia Tallinn in 2018.

That victory in Estonia two summers ago courtesy of a Dylan Connolly strike is the club’s only win away from home in their last 13 European ties.

There is a similar story for the likes of Shamrock Rovers, who since famously beating Partizan to qualify for the Europa League group stages in 2011 have played 12 European ties and won just once away against Stjarnan in 2017.

While results of recent years such as drawing with FH Hafnarfjordur and AZ Alkmaar in 2016 felt like victories, not to mention last year’s penalty shoot-out success away to Riga, going away undoubtedly means doing things the hard way.

The one good thing from Dundalk’s perspective is that no matter what they will have a second game when and if they lose whereas the other Irish clubs could lose one game and have their European campaign ended.

Vinny Perth is hopeful his side will get some long overdue luck in the draw when Dundalk learn their Champions League opponents in August.

With the qualifying rounds set to be played over one leg rather than the traditional two, the Lilywhites boss is only too well aware how important it could be to be drawn at home.

‘For Irish clubs, you just have to accept that luck is a massive part of it,’ he said.

‘We had some luck in 2016 if you remember back. We weren’t exactly brilliant in Iceland and got there in the end. Then away to BATE was a tough game for us but we managed to stay in the tie.

‘Sometimes you need a little bit of luck to go your way. You could have three home draws in-a-row in Europe or you could have three away draws but we’ve seen big clubs struggle when they come to Ireland, not just against Dundalk but against others, then when you go away they’re a different animal.

‘We will certainly need the rub of the green on that front. I don’t think we’ve had good luck in the draws for a while so we’re probably due one.’

With the draw for the first qualifying round not due to take place until a week before the game on August 18th or 19th, Dundalk will have less time than usual to study their first qualifying round opponents. This is not something that is overly concerning Perth.

‘It’s not as much time as we’d like but the advantage is that we’re used to it,’ he said.

‘Many of us in the group are heading towards 40 European games in the last seven years this year. I’ve experienced this before as both an assistant and as a manager where basically you have a week’s notice to prepare. It’s not ideal but we’re well experienced on it.