Lilywhites are flying ahead of Europa tie
SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE
DUNDALK manager Stephen Kenny has called on his side to carry their league form into Europe when they take on Levadia Tallinn in the Kadriorg Stadium on Thursday in their Europa League first qualifying round first leg tie (kick-off 5pm Irish time).
The Lilywhites equalled a club record of 10 straight league wins with a 3-1 victory away to St Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night to move four points clear at the top of the SSE Airtricity League table.
However, despite his side’s current good form the Lilywhites boss is expecting a tight affair against the Estonians.
‘They’ve two strong wide players and they’re a very well drilled team who are very good from long throw-ins and set plays. They’re very well organised and everyone clearly knows their role.
‘Their Ukrainian centre forward has been amongst the goals so they are a threat and it will be a tight game over the two legs.’
While Cork City beat Levadia 6-2 on aggregate at this stage last year, Kenny has warned that they are a different proposition now having merged with FCI Tallinn at the end of last year.
‘They’ve only six players from last season in the squad,’ he said.
‘They’ve a well organised team and system and everyone has clearly defined roles. We’ll have to be at our best. We’ve been on a good run in the league so we have to take that league form now into the game in Tallinn.’
While Thursday’s game marks the 21st in Europe of Kenny’s Dundalk reign, it is the first under the club’s new American owners. Their best chance of getting a return on their investment is through Europe but the manager denied that placed more pressure on him and his players.
‘I wouldn’t say that at all. I see your argument but that’s not the way they view it.
‘We’ll look at the first game and see how we go and take it from there. If we are successful is it difficult then to win the league? These are the dilemmas, the questions and challenges but all we want to do is keep winning matches and we’ll be trying our best to do that on Thursday.’
Dundalk have injury doubts over Michael Duffy (groin) and Dean Jarvis (hip flexor) while Stephen Folan will miss the trip with a knee injury. Karolis Chevedukas was expected to return to training on Monday but the manager hasn’t ruled out the possibility of him needing surgery on the ankle problem that has dogged him all season.
New signing Patrick McEleney came through an hour of last Saturday’s 1-0 friendly win over Glentoran at Oriel Park but the manager insists this tie could come too soon for the Derry man.
‘The danger with Patrick is that we push him too hard, too early and he breaks down. We know him well and what works for him. He needs some work still. He obviously didn’t play that much in England because he had groin and thigh issues. He was rushed back a few times and so forth but we’re just getting him right.
‘He played an hour on Saturday, which is a good start. He had three good sessions during the week and he’ll have a few intensive training sessions this week and we’ll see how he goes. We’ll make a decision based on training as to when to include him but maybe this week will come too soon for him. I don’t know if he could be involved in the home leg, we’ll have to see how that goes.
‘We want to be successful this season but there’s no point in throwing him into matches fragile. We want to keep him fit,’ said Kenny.
The manager also hit back at criticism from Shamrock Rovers head coach Stephen Bradley and Cork City manager John Caulfield about Dundalk’s resources following their double capture of McEleney and Georgie Kelly last week.
He said: ‘ On Stephen Bradley first of all, I didn’t understand his argument because they sent a delegation to Oldham to do a deal and they agreed a fee. Obviously we were in a dilemma. We wanted Patrick and Patrick only wanted to come here. He didn’t want to go to Shamrock Rovers.
‘The dilemma was to either let him go or sign him. What people forget is that Patrick helped us earn over €7 million and he was very influential in doing that. For us it was, without doubt, great business because he is one of the most exciting players to be seen in the league in modern times. He’s worth the admission money to watch him.
‘His criticism to me didn’t make sense at all. I just think it was a bit of bravado and playing to the gallery. I felt he wanted to criticise Dundalk, have a go at Dundalk but I didn’t understand what was his argument.
‘Ultimately we won the league with a back four of Sean Gannon, who was on the fringes at Pat’s, Dane Massey from Bray, Brian Gartland who had finished up at Portadown and Andy Boyle, who was in the First Division with Shelbourne. We had Darren Meenan, off a PFAI course with a shoulder operation. We signed Pat Hoban from Mervue and we had Chris Shields and John Mountney who were in a relegation with Dundalk in the play-offs the year before and Peter Cherrie so don’t talk to me about resources.
‘I think if Tommy Barrett or Martin Russell wanted to complain about the disparity in resources absolutely they have tough jobs but the managers of Shamrock Rovers and Cork, they’re big clubs, very big clubs with very good resources. They’re in a great position as managers so to complain about resources…’
Kenny also hit out at Caulfield over his claims that Dundalk had paid a large fee for the First Division’s top goalscorer Georgie Kelly.
‘John Caulfield put statements out that we paid a massive fee for Georgie Kelly which is being completely dishonest and untrue because we actually didn’t pay any fee for Georgie Kelly.
‘He is a young player coming in on a modest League of Ireland wage who wanted to play here. With Georgie, I seen him play as a young player. My two youngest lads started off playing in Aileach on Inch Island and Georgie is from that club. I know him from then and I saw him play in the Donegal schools’ final for Scoil Mhuire.
‘We were going to take him at the start of the year but he felt a duty to UCD to finish his scholarship. He has a good relationship and respect for people at UCD so he didn’t feel he could leave until the summer. He had his own personal agreement with them because of that and because he was honouring his commitments that he could leave on a free and we signed him for that. To try and put pressure on a lad like that is very disappointing and unnecessary.’
Kenny also said Cork were not in a position to speak about resources given their recent transfer history.
‘They’ve signed a Premiership player and we’ve got a young player coming in from UCD.’
‘In relation to Cork and the apparent disparity in resources… Sligo Rovers and Derry City are big clubs and yet in the last couple of years they’ve taken eight players from Sligo and Derry. Every time Sligo produce a player Cork just buy him.
‘They signed Tobi Adebayo-Rowling for a record fee for a right back in this country at the start of the year and in the end he went on a free in the summer. I can’t be certain about that but he went to go to non-league in England.
‘If you’re the manager of Lim- erick or Bray you can complain but Cork and Shamrock Rovers are big clubs, who are very well resourced. They’re all completely full-time with full-time staff so really they can’t complain.
‘We won a league with nothing. We started with the bare minimum, we won it with nothing. We’ve earned money through winning and through our qualification in Europe but still there’s not much disparity between the top clubs.
There’s disparity between the Brays and the Limericks, which is difficult. We’re not perfect as a club. We know Oriel Park needs huge improvement and this is still only our first year being really full-time properly. We’re not perfect but both attacks on Dundalk were completely unnecessary.’
After missing out on Dylan Watts to Shamrock Rovers, Kenny said he was ‘happy with what we’ve got’ and wouldn’t be making further signings in this transfer window.
He admitted the club would look to retain the services of Sam Byrne and said Ronan Murray was set to stay despite interest from St Pat’s and Sligo Rovers.
‘I’m delighted that Ronan Murray has come to me and said he wants to stay and fight for his place. He really wants to be part of this team. There’s a lot of interest in Ronan but he made such a difference coming on against Cork last week. Ronan has done really well for us,’ said Kenny.
Meanwhile, Marco Tagbajumi confirmed via Twitter on Monday morning that he had departed Dundalk FC.
He said: ‘I would like to thank the management, players, staff and supporters for welcoming me and taking such good care of me. I wish you many more years of success.’