Dundalk's Animasahun eyeing 500-minute milestone

Mayowa Animasahun has clarified that his substitution at half-time during Dundalk FC’s 1-0 victory over Cobh Ramblers in the SSE Airtricity League First Division was a precautionary measure prompted by an earlier yellow card, rather than a recurrence of the hamstring injury that had sidelined him for several matches earlier this season.

Animasahun was shown his first booking of the campaign in the 21st minute for a seemingly innocuous foul on Barry Coffey in the centre of the pitch.

This came just 10 minutes after Cobh winger Luka Le Bervet avoided similar sanction for a late challenge on Conor O’Keeffe, sparking some debate over the consistency of the officiating.

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The towering defender, who later made way for Sean McHale at the break, expressed his disappointment with the decision handed down by Dublin referee Aaron O’Dowd.

“The gaffer was a bit precautious about the yellow card,” he told The Democrat afterwards. “The ref was probably a little bit card-happy, so we just wanted to be careful and not take any risks. I understand it, to be fair. I just have to make sure I learn from it and it doesn’t happen again.”

Goalless at the interval, The Lilywhites eventually pierced Cobh’s resistance in the 56th minute, courtesy of a decisive own goal by Finnish defender Jonas Hakkinen.

In a hard-fought encounter, the victory marked unbeaten Dundalk’s eighth triumph in their opening nine fixtures, maintaining their seven-point lead at the top of the table.

“It was a physical game,” reflected Animasahun. “It was a game that tested our quality and pushed us to up our levels, and I felt like we did up our levels and met the demands needed to get the three points.

“We have to remember it’s only the first round of games, but now we’ve seen every team, we’ve seen what we’re up against, and we know that we have to continuously up our levels because everyone’s going to continuously get better.

“We have to play every other team three times again really, so it’s all about being consistent. The only people that can beat us are the people in our changing room, so we have to focus, focus, focus, and be consistent week in, week out, and not let the standards drop.

“It’s the work we put in during pre-season; it’s the work we continue to do in training. Trainings are tough, with two sessions a day most of the time.

“We work hard, and we try to replicate that on the pitch. You can see it in the work rate the boys put in—that we build our foundations on our work ethic, and that’s how it should be.”

After being sidelined for five consecutive matches with a hamstring injury sustained during February’s 1-0 victory at Finn Harps, the 21-year-old made his return to action against UCD in Belfield, completing the full 90 minutes in yet another 1-0 win.

Dundalk have yet to concede a league goal this season with Animasahun on the field.

“If you don’t concede, you can’t lose,” said the former Coláiste Rís student. “Of course, you want to keep clean sheets and defend well while also going forward and penetrating.

“The defence starts from the attack. The attackers and the press we’ve set up—all of it comes from the hard work we put in during training. It’s very good.”

Spanning this season and the final game of the last, another shutout against Treaty United this Friday night at Markets Field (kick-off: 7.45pm) could see Animasahun reach a remarkable 500 minutes of play in the League of Ireland without conceding a goal.

“We want to beat every team,” he concluded when previewing Dundalk’s visit to Limerick. “We want to stack every point we can get, take every point as it comes, take every game as it comes, and start putting teams to the sword and finishing them.”