DUNDALK BOSS STEPHEN Kenny was left frustrated after seeing his side well beaten 3-0 by a Sean Maguire-inspired Cork City on Friday night.
The Lilywhites coach said he had been encouraged by his team’s performances of late, but admitted on Friday night that his side were beaten by the better team in the Oriel Park encounter.
“I think we played well in recent weeks and that gave us cause for optimism — we scored four against Sligo, three against Limerick, two against Pat’s, the goals were real quality goals and we had four clean sheets.
“But tonight, it’s a disappointing display. I think we didn’t react well to conceding the first goal — it seemed to affect our confidence.
“Even though we weren’t playing that well, we still had the capability of going to win that game in the second half because we were putting pressure on; Robbie Benson had one tipped over, Jamie McGrath had a great chance and a succession of corner kicks.
“We looked like we were getting back into the game and just needed something to drop for us. To concede the second goal from a harmless throw-in and one cross into the box and a free header was really disappointing from our point of view.”
With the onset of the mid-season break, Kenny acknowledges it’s been a difficult campaign, as his side looks set to fail in their bid to win a fourth consecutive league title.
We’ve been inconsistent overall. We’ve played well in a couple of games and in a couple we haven’t played well — Shamrock Rovers away from home. Certainly, (the Cork game was) a very disappointing display. We’re much better than that. I think we have to learn from that.”
Kenny also admitted that even if they had beaten the Leesiders, a league title would still be unlikely, while they now trail the table toppers by 18 points after Friday’s result.
I think even had we won, we were facing a tall order to get back into the league being realistic. We’ve got to go and win matches. Dundalk won the league in 1995 and in the interim 18 years they never finished in the top four.
“Now we’re in the top four, we’ve come in and finished second, we won the league three years in a row and now we’re second at the moment. So we have to consolidate that second place and improve and get better and work hard to get better.”
Dundalk started Friday’s game well but appeared to lose confidence after Maguire opened the scoring, though Kenny emphasised some postive aspects from the display.
Second half we seemed to do better for a period and looked like we were on the front foot. I know we weren’t creating loads of clear-cut chances.
“But Robbie Benson had a good chance tipped over, Jamie McGrath had a good chance I don’t know what happened, certainly he knocked it wide. A succession of corners and a free kick. We conceded then and that a sloppy goal and the third one in the 95th minute, a terrible goal you know.”
Cork struggled at times when league form coincided with their run in Europe last year, and Kenny and co will be hoping history can repeat itself, but the Dundalk boss for now says the main focus is maintaining their hold on second place.
I think we need to win matches ourselves because we need to consolidate that second position. You’ve seen other teams win leagues, Sligo and Pat’s and they aren’t in contention for Europe.”
The Dublin-born coach also suggested tiredness could be a factor in Dundalk’s disappointing season, given that their 2016 campaign didn’t end until their Europa League interest finished, while the loss of several key players didn’t help matters.
Particularly with the season — this is not an excuse — but we finished in mid-December, were back in mid-January and went though a lot of issues. Now is not the time to make excuses, we’ve been beaten fair and square, we’d a lot of players in good form coming into the game.
“Cork beat us fair and square, Sean Maguire played well, got his hat-trick, and deserves it — we can have no qualms about that. I think you know we only have ourselves to blame in that regard today. You can’t make excuses for today.”
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