Kenny’s hot streak fires Dundalk closer to promised land

Ciaran Kilduff lavished praise upon the in-form Eoin Kenny after the 19-year-old forward produced the first brace of his career in Dundalk FC’s emphatic 6-1 demolition of Athlone Town at Oriel Park — a result that brings The Lilywhites another step closer to promotion from the SSE Airtricity League First Division.

Kenny struck twice and laid on an assist on Friday night, just four days after delivering two assists and a goal in a 4-1 victory over Longford Town at the same venue on the August Bank Holiday.

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This prolific spell has elevated his tally of goal involvements for the season to 11 — trailing only Dean Ebbe (14) and Daryl Horgan (12), with all three ever-present across Dundalk’s 27 league matches to date.

Remarkably, nine of Kenny’s contributions have come in the past seven matches, an emphatic testament to his surging form made all the more striking by the fact that he has started as a centre-forward only twice this season, spending the majority of the campaign operating from the flanks or in a deeper attacking role.

“Eoin is a 19-year-old kid and has loads to learn,” remarked Dundalk manager Kilduff, before joking, “I was slagging him because he was wearing the number 16; his dad gave it to me, and I’m giving it to him, so he has to give it to my son now when he’s managing Dundalk.

“I’m delighted for him. I’m proud of him because no one’s harder on Eoin than Eoin is. He puts a lot of pressure on himself, but when he’s playing with that freedom, he’s worth the entrance fee alone. He’s unorthodox, he’s direct, he’s magic — he’s all of these things.

“In the last couple of games, coming up with all those goals and assists for us, I couldn’t be happier for him, and long may it continue.”

The 6-1 dismantling of Athlone marked Dundalk’s fourth consecutive league victory and the most emphatic of Kilduff’s tenure.

Gbemi Arubi added to Kenny’s brace before substitute Rohan Vaughan struck twice from the bench and fellow replacement Keith Ward delivered a sublime free-kick — earned by the returning Norman Garbett, who also laid on the assist for Vaughan’s second.

The impact of his substitutions has left the manager with welcome selection dilemmas as the season enters its final quarter.

“I asked the lads to give me headaches over the last couple of weeks, and they all have,” he said. “I didn’t start Dean Ebbe, and he got two on Monday. Now I have Norman back, who’s contributing with goals, and I have Rohan getting a brace, Eoin getting a brace.

“You have so many players now in these positions that can cause anyone a problem. Even the arrival of Rohan alone has been a catalyst for other players as well to react. There’s goals coming from everywhere now, which is something maybe earlier in the season we were trying to crack, and we seem to have stumbled upon it now.”

Dundalk’s victory over Athlone stretched their unbeaten home league run this season to 14 matches, their last reverse at Oriel coming last October — a slender 1-0 defeat to Shamrock Rovers — when relegation had already been confirmed.

With just four home fixtures remaining in 2025, Kilduff will look to rouse bumper crowds to help carry his side over the threshold and back into the Premier Division.

“It felt like the proper Oriel that was here when I was here (as a player), and you knew we were trying to win something,” he reflected after the Athlone victory.

“I’d said it when I first got announced as the manager that there was a bit of trauma around the club, in the dressing room, in the stands. There was a huge transition period because we had just got relegated.

“People are trying to get behind the team now, and they see that we’re trying to rebuild and there’s something to support again. I was very proud of us all tonight as a club — the players on the pitch, the people in the stand, the supporters, and everyone. We’ve earned a week’s break, but the big games are still to come.”