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Dundalk midfielder Wilfried Zahibo. Tommy Dickson/INPHO
Dundalk

'Some of the criticism has crossed the line' – Perth backs under-fire Zahibo

The Dundalk midfielder endured a difficult evening against Levadia Tallinn on Thursday.

VINNY PERTH HAS hit out at abuse directed at Dundalk midfielder Wilfried Zahibo after the 27-year-old endured a difficult evening in the 2-2 draw with Levadia Tallinn on Thursday.

Zahibo came into the Dundalk team for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round first leg fixture after Perth lost the services of Michael Duffy following Covid tests before the game.

And Zahibo quickly became a scapegoat for a sizable portion of the 1,000 supporters in attendance at Tallaght Stadium as he failed to settle into a scrappy, incident-packed first half, which saw Dundalk come from behind twice to go in 2-2 at the break, with Zahibo not tracking playmaker Zakaria Beglarishvili in the build-up to the visitor’s second goal.

A small number of supporters could be heard berating the player throughout that opening period, and his substitution for Greg Sloggett on 58 minutes was loudly cheered following a largely ineffective outing.

After the game, Perth was asked about the abuse directed Zahibo’s way.

“I think that’s getting personal,” Perth said. “I think that’s the modern world we’re living in now. People are able to send tweets and messages out. I get criticised for maybe being critical of social media. I think it’s too easy, I think it’s too easy to be critical of people.

“He’s had a difficult time in this club for loads of Covid reasons, internationals etc. The one thing since 2012, we’ve always backed our players. He’s a very popular guy, he’s a great person in the dressing room.

At times he could have done more, but at other times he showed the quality he has. That will come from him. It is what it is, fans are entitled to criticise people, I accept that, but once it’s not personal.

“I think some of the criticism has crossed the line with Wilfried in particular.”

Zahibo, who has been capped six times by the Central African Republic, has had a difficult start to life with Dundalk since joining the club in April – not playing a single minute for the Lilywhites last month. The former Valencia player has already been linked with a move away from Oriel Park, with his reported high wages another source of frustration for some Dundalk supporters.

But Perth backed the player to come good in a Dundalk shirt.

“He went away on international duty which he had to go on – we hadn’t got a choice in that. And he’s come back and had two hotel quarantines,” Perth explained.

“Effectively, he goes away, has to play an international and has to sit in a hotel room for most of two weeks, being able to do very little. He’s had Covid himself so he’s struggled.

ilya-antonov-and-wilfred-zahibo Zahibo struggled to make an impact against Levadia Tallinn. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

“But we’ve seen him start to find a bit of form on the training ground and that’s why he came in tonight.

“I felt tonight was set up for him. It didn’t go his way at times but he’s very popular in our dressing room. He will develop as long as he is at this club. I’ve a lot of time for him as a person.”

Perth was upbeat about his team’s chances of advancing in the tie after watching Dundalk recover from a disjointed first half in Tallaght, with all four goals arriving in a breathless opening period.

The Lilywhites looked much more assured in the second half and created the majority of the scoring chances, but failed to find a winner ahead of next week’s return leg in Tallinn.

“Michael (Duffy) missing is not an excuse, we’ve got a good squad here, but we sort of missed that sort of (player)… We let them have the ball a little bit because we changed our shape, but I thought at times – certainly in the second half – we dominated possession.

“Our shape worked to a point, and with just a little bit more quality we might have hurt them.

“A year ago I think this would have been a dreadful result in one sense because of the away goals (rule), but I think now, like if there’s no goals in the second leg it goes to penalties, so (we’ve got a good chance of progressing).” 


The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud

Murray Kinsella, Bernard Jackman and Gavan Casey look ahead to the big one this weekend in Cape Town. Become a member for loads of more rugby podcasts and video analysis shows: members.the42.ie/

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