Mountney: Players must look at themselves after poor start

CLUB captain John Mountney feels the Dundalk players need to take a look at themselves for their performances this season.

Speaking following the 4-1 defeat to Derry City at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium on Friday night and before head coach Stephen O’Donnell’s dismissal on Monday, the 31-year-old agreed with the manager’s assessment that commitment to the cause was lacking.

While O’Donnell’s exit following Dundalk’s dismal start to the season, which has seen them take just three points from a possible 24 to date, could potentially change the landscape ahead of the visit of Mountney’s old club St Patrick’s Athletic to Oriel Park this Friday, the Mayo man feels the players need to show more if they’re to claim a first win against the FAI Cup winners or away to Bohemians in their re-arranged fixture on Monday night.

“It’s not what we expected coming up on the bus,” Mountney said of the result and performance.

“It’s just very disappointing. We just have to take responsibility, the lads who took the pitch, myself included, it just wasn’t good enough. It’s as simple as that. We just didn’t serve up a performance that was good enough to go and get anything.”

FIVE-TIME CHAMPION

The five-time league winner said he agreed with O’Donnell’s assessment that his side were a “soft touch” and not showing enough to win matches. “I’d agree with him,” said Mountney. “We have to die for the cause. When you put on that jersey, you have to remember what you’re representing – the crest, what it means to everyone, what it means to the fans and the people of Dundalk and all of that.

“We just need to get to that because at the minute we’re not dying for the cause and I totally agree with the manager.

“It’s as good a setup as I’ve been involved in in Dundalk in terms of the information we get on other teams, the opposition and the way we’re going to play but it comes down to who is on the pitch. You can talk and setup all you want. It comes down to those 90 minutes when the lights are on and the performances from the start until now just haven’t been good enough, myself included, and I think as players we hold our hands up to that.”

Mountney admitted that it had been a struggle for the side to gel following a huge turnover in the off-season which saw 15 players depart Oriel Park and 11 arrive.

“When you have a big turnover, you’re always optimistic,” he said when asked where things were going wrong.

“You’re only getting to know lads but like that it’s hard to gel a tight knit group together. That’s still something we’re still trying to work towards. The most important thing when it comes down to matches is that you put your body on the line and you do die for the cause. You give everything – blood, sweat and tears. That’s what we need to start serving up because it’s just not good enough.

“Like I said, it has not been good enough from the start of the season until now. We need to all look at ourselves as players and see what we’re bringing to the table to be honest.”

The Bohola-native said Dundalk needed to produce something at home against St Pat’s this Friday for the fans more than anyone.

“Dundalk is a working class place. People come up to Oriel and look forward to their Friday nights. Obviously the whole mindset at the minute is very negative but the only people who can change that is us on the pitch.

“The fans are spending their hard earned money to come to Oriel Park and they’re not happy with how it has been so we need to give them something that they can really get behind and sort of believe in.

“The league is the most competitive it has been but we just need to make sure that whoever takes the pitch on Friday that they’re willing to die for everything – defending or going forward that we want it more than them really because that’s what it can come down to in a game of football. If you bring that then you’ll be competitive and stay tight in games so we just need to find that mindset next week.”

Mountney reiterated that the players needed to do more to show they were better than the league table currently suggests.

“We need to look at ourselves as players over what we’re bringing to the table because there’s no doubt there is talent, there is quality, there is lads with plenty of experience and there’s lads who are young who are trying to make a name for themselves. We just need to remember as an individual what we’re doing it for because we’re all giving up and sacrificing something to play football so now we need to get back to having that hunger,” he added.