MEDIA MOTIVATION DIDN’T WIN IT FOR LILIES

IT’S amazing what achieving set targets does for the honesty of a group of players. Once they have gotten over the line and completed their main objective, there’s a freedom that follows the exhilaration. So they open up and provide a little snapshot into the mindset of a successful dressing room. Just a few minutes after Dundalk were crowned champions for 2015, courtesy of their draw with Shamrock Rovers and Cork City being held by Drogheda United, Chris Shields and Dane Massey explained exactly what motivated them to clinch back-to-back titles. Apparently, the Dundalk players (who face Galway United tonight) felt they had been totally dismissed by a media who reckoned they were fourth favourites to win the league before it began in March. Regardless of whether this was the case or not, what it shows is that sometimes you need a little bit more than pure desire to drive you on. It helps when you have the best manager and best players, of course, and all season the message was driven home by everyone at Oriel Park that this was a hungry squad who were motivated by success. Now we know there was also a bit of anger lighting their fuse. There is no harm in that and maybe a sense of injustice is needed to galvanise a group who had achieved so much the season before. The success is all down to them, though.