Spirited showing offers no consolation to Dundalk manager

Ciaran Kilduff was in no mood for hard luck narratives after his Dundalk FC side bowed out of the Sports Direct FAI Cup with a spirited 2-0 defeat to Sligo Rovers in the second round.

Top of the SSE Airtricity League First Division, Dundalk largely controlled the opening 45 minutes at Oriel Park, outplaying their Premier Division opponents, only to be undone by two quickfire goals early in the second half from James McManus and Jake Doyle-Hayes.

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Though rocked by the double setback — conceded within just three minutes — The Lilywhites showed admirable resolve, carving out several opportunities to claw their way back into the contest, and while the breakthrough never came, their performance earned widespread praise; yet for Kilduff, there was little comfort in a commendable loss.

“In the first half, we were the better team with the better chances,” reflected the Dundalk manager afterwards. “We were going in (at half-time) positive about it, but we knew we had to go and do it again.

“You get nothing for making a good account of yourself. You get nothing for a good performance. You only get it by winning. Not going back to the old adage of young lads, but that’s a huge learning curve tonight, where you can be very, very good at times, but lose the game 2-0.

“It was the same as last week. We went down to Bray, played quite well, but lost 2-0. So the problem is the problem — if we’re not converting and we’re not taking those chances when they come, frustration boils over and then you lose, you’re out of the cup. We have to learn from that now and kick on again, hopefully in the coming weeks.”

He added: “There are fine margins, and there were some home truths being told in there because we need to learn. There was a scalp there for us tonight, we felt there was. We watched them the last two weeks — the same 11 against Shamrock Rovers and Derry.

“I was frustrated at half-time that we weren’t winning. Second half, probably the levels of the league come up, moments of quality. The first goal is obviously a worldie, the second we’ll have to look back on, but the game is snatched away from you there in a five-minute block, and that’s the frustration.”

Not only did the FAI Cup defeat mark Dundalk’s first home loss in the competition in over a decade, it also represented the first time Kilduff has endured back-to-back competitive defeats since taking charge of The Lilywhites last November.

When asked if there were any positives to take from the defeat to Sligo, he responded, “It’s hard now because you’ve lost a game of football, and I’ll never be that manager who comes out and goes, ‘I’m delighted, but we lost.’ We were here to win, and I can’t really see the positives right now.

“But we played some good stuff against a really good team — a team who I saw last week beat Derry City 2-0, who are flying and are one of the top teams in the Premier Division — so there’s some silver lining somewhere deep in it, but losing is not for us.

“I felt maybe, potentially, as well, that there was a big night for us there. We wanted a big night, we wanted a big moment, and this was going to be one that I thought we’d get, and we didn’t. Not that it slipped through our fingers, but we fancied it.”