‘We’re here for long haul and to build club’

Dundalk owner happy with off-field progress

WHILE the club’s league position is not what Brian Ainscough would have wanted when he completed his takeover at the end of November, the Dundalk FC owner says he is very pleased with how things are progressing off the field right now.

The Boston-based businessman has overseen a number of appointments in recent months with Peter Halpin named as the club’s new CEO, Nita Whelan coming in as Commercial Manager and Aoife Burns appointed as the new Football and Social Responsibility Officer, to name but a few.

Having spoken about putting structures in place when he took over the club, Ainscough said he has been happy with the progression to date.

“It started with Sticky, Stephen Fisher, the groundsman. We didn’t have a groundsman. Getting him here, now we have a staff where we feel like we have organisational structure.

“Aoife has done fantastic, Nita has done amazing work, Ailish (Kelly), who has been here forever now has some support in the front office. It feels like it’s an organisation and we’ll be adding to it as we go on but right now it has been good.

“Gavin (McLaughlin) has stepped up and has always done a great job but it feels like now when you come in in the morning that there’s not just a couple of people around and it’s a skeleton staff so to speak.

“It feels like we are getting to where we have an organisation and Peter has been fantastic. Even though he has had hip surgery, he’s here at every game and he is exactly what I want as my CEO.

“I was never going to be the CEO doing that job. We were always going to do that whether we were nine and zero or zero and nine.

“We’re here for the long haul and we’re here to build a club. It won’t be based on seven or eight results how we’ll be judged. I think we’ll be judged after a few years hopefully.”

Ainscough also praised the players for their attitude after a difficult start to the season.

“This league to me is harder than it has ever been. It’s probably one of the first times that everyone has gone full-time. There’s no easy games. Every game feels like it’s a Cup final and when you’re at the bottom of the league every game is a European Cup or World Cup final it feels like.

“I’m really impressed with the way the players have dealt with it, never mind Noel or the coaches. You’ve seen them. At the end of the day it’s about them. In the last five games they haven’t dropped their head.

“They haven’t dropped their workrate so they’re a real credit and I think they’re a tight enough group which, after nine games, it would have been easy to go the opposite way so I think they’ve been great and I think the senior guys like Daryl (Horgan) and (Robbie) Benson and Boyler (Andy Boyle) have done fantastic.”