‘My goal means
PATRICK Hoban spoke for less than a couple of minutes but the fact the word ‘“frustrating’ was used on five occasions summed up the mood as Dundalk left Vienna empty-handed on Thursday night.
Filippo Giovagnoli’s side had put in an admirable display against Rapid Vienna, but, not for the first time, individual errors came back to haunt them as the Austrians claimed a 4-3 victory in the end.
Afterwards Hoban was left to reflect on what might have been. ‘It’s frustrating,’ he said.
‘I feel like we definitely should have got something from the game. All four goals that were scored were avoidable and it’s just so frustrating for us because we worked so hard during the week to prepare right for this game.
‘I thought our tactics were working to a tee, but it’s just really, really frustrating to lose the game 4-3.’
Asked if the errors were tough to take, he added: ‘For sure. It is frustrating.
‘We’re causing our own undoing, but there was a great performance there tonight. You can’t deny that, but at the end of the day you’re going to get punished at this level if you make those kind of mistakes. That’s something that we need to work on.
‘It’s just frustrating to be leaving here with nothing, to be honest with you.’
Not even his first European goal of this year – headed in after seven minutes from a Chris Shields delivery – could lift the striker’s mood.
‘I’m obviously happy to score, but to come away from here with nothing, it means nothing to be honest with you,’ said Hoban.
The Galway man’s goal took him to 105 for the club in total, surpassing the return of Paddy Turner.
This means that only three men have now scored more goals for Dundalk than the 29-year-old. His next target to beat is the 109 goals scored by Joe Martin between 1949 and 1960, and second in the all-time list is Eddie Carroll who netted 113 times between 1927 and 1935.
Hoban will have to go some to beat Dundalk’s top scorer of all time, Joey Donnelly. But his total of 142 goals was achieved over almost two decades, spanning the years 1929 to 1947.