VINNY PERTH DID not want to be accused of making excuses after Sunday’s FAI Cup final and was eager not to take anything away from Shamrock Rovers’ achievement, but he did acknowledge a sense of frustration after Dundalk were left without two of their key players for the pivotal game.
Rovers dominated midfield for a considerable portion of the contest, with the absence of long-serving midfielder Chris Shields and playmaker Patrick McEleney conspicuous.
Sean Murray came in for McEleney, though he struggled to have a major influence on proceedings and was replaced just after the hour mark by Daniel Kelly, while centre-back Sean Hoare had to operate as a makeshift holding midfielder in Shields’ absence.
“I suppose obviously there’s a big sense of disappointment, for many reasons,” Perth said afterwards. “We didn’t feel we were at our very best today, some for obvious reasons, some that’s just the way it goes.
“I was very proud to lead the team into the stadium, it was a real honour for someone like me who, as many of you will know, know where I’ve come from
“And, to be honest with you, after the year we’ve had, I’m very proud leaving the ground as well. It’s just been one of those days that didn’t go our way.”
The absence of Shields was particularly frustrating. The midfielder missed out after picking up eight yellow cards over the course of the season, with two of these bookings occurring in what were effectively dead-rubber matches from Dundalk’s perspective, as they took place after the Lilywhites had been confirmed as league champions.
Perth hinted during the week that there was more to this situation than meets the eye, and that he would elaborate on exactly what happened after the match, but the coach was more keen to discuss the McEleney injury and what it tells us about the team’s intense schedule this season.
The way the modern world has gone, I’ll be accused of making excuses. There are certain things there I wouldn’t be mad happy about and I think we’ve got to fix some of the issues but, to be honest with you, the only one I’d probably complain about is Patrick McEleney not making the cup final today. I spoke very loudly about that at the time. He got injured in the semi-final of the FAI Cup, we played Shamrock Rovers on the Monday and that disappoints me for Patrick.
“We have to look after our players. The Rovers game was our 16th, I think, in 48 days. There was no need for it, we’ve only played four games in the last month. That’s disappointing but, again, we need to be very careful, it’s been Rovers’ day and I’m very conscious that they’ve done what they’ve done and they deserve the plaudits tonight and tomorrow morning.”
Perth also suggested the team are close to signing another holding midfielder to fill the void when Shields is unavailable in future, while the 43-year-old coach also played down suggestions Rovers would be a bigger threat to their title aspirations next season.
I said from the start that I didn’t think this was the season-defining game. We have got areas to improve on in our squad, but myself and the chairman have been working on that in the last month and we’re very close to improving our squad. People will draw their own conclusions but, ultimately, when we won the league we went 17 points clear. I don’t think that was a far-off reflection on where we are as a club in my opinion, but they’ll obviously have a different opinion.
“I think at times they can look the better side, because of the way they keep the ball, the way they play. But, listen, I haven’t seen the game back, but we felt that turnovers were a massive opportunity for us to counter-attack and get after them. That’s where we probably lacked that little bit of composure, when we got into the final third at stages. We won the last league game and they’d over 60% of the ball and Dane Massey hit the post to go 4-1 up. I think we’ve found a way to play against them, I’m not too concerned about that going forward.”
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