DUNDALK’S JAMIE McGRATH heaped praise on head coach Vinny Perth after the Lilywhites completed a successful defence of their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division crown.
With four games to spare, the Oriel Park outfit secured a fifth title in six seasons thanks to last night’s 3-2 victory at home to Shamrock Rovers.
Goals from Sean Hoare and Robbie Benson had the hosts in control against their nearest challengers at half-time. Aaron Greene hit back for Rovers in the 55th minute, before Michael Duffy issued a swift response with a stunning strike. Aaron McEneff’s 64th-minute goal wasn’t enough to deny Dundalk an eighth win on the trot.
“It’s indescribable,” McGrath said afterwards. “After all your hard work throughout the year, as soon as that final whistle is blown you just can’t put it into words. It’s an incredible feeling knowing you’re champions. It’s just unbelievable.”
Dundalk retained their title despite Stephen Kenny’s departure at the end of last season. Kenny’s former assistant, Vinny Perth, stepped in to take control as head coach, but the change hasn’t brought the Louth club’s dominance of Irish football to a halt.
“I think his work has been under-rated,” McGrath said of Perth. “He hasn’t got the plaudits he probably deserved this year. People were probably throwing stuff his way when it wasn’t going well but now we’re flying.
“I don’t know if he’s getting the due credit he deserves. We all know the job he has done here. He’s done an incredible job. Credit to him because it’s a tough job to follow and he’s grabbed it with both hands.”
Dundalk extended their unbeaten league run to 23 games as they brought an end to the title race. They haven’t dropped points since a 2-2 draw away to Derry City on 5 July.
It has been a remarkable run by the champions, who were 13 points adrift of Shamrock Rovers when they suffered back-to-back defeats against St Patrick’s Athletic and Sligo Rovers in April.
McGrath said: “They [Shamrock Rovers] were the team to beat this year. They took an early lead in the season but it’s very hard to maintain it.
“I think we were very relentless in the last three months. I can’t remember the last game in which we dropped points. We’ve been very good in the last period but we want to keep that going now until the end of the season.”
Dundalk, who also won the EA Sports Cup earlier this month, now have an opportunity to complete a domestic treble for the first time in their history, a feat which hasn’t been achieved by any side since Derry City in 1989.
They travel to face Sligo Rovers on Sunday, with a place in the FAI Cup final at the Aviva Stadium on 3 November at stake. Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers contest the other semi-final on Friday night.
“We want to be in the Aviva and we want to have all the glamour around a big final,” said former Ireland U21 international McGrath, who has won two league titles, two EA Sports Cups and one FAI Cup since joining Dundalk from St Pat’s in 2017.
The attacking midfielder added: “We’ve set targets. There are three trophies you set out to win. That [the FAI Cup] is probably the second-biggest on the list. It’s a priority for us so we have to go after it.”
– Additional reporting by Keith Wallace
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