Dundalk manager wants to “win it at a different club”

Jon Daly is aiming to win the Sports Direct FAI Cup for the second year running after lifting the trophy as St Patrick’s Athletic manager at the Aviva Stadium last November.

Having succeeded Tim Clancy in May 2023, Daly guided St Pats from seventh-place to third and European qualification in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table – culminating with a come-from-behind 3-1 FAI Cup final victory over Bohemians.

Now the Dundalk FC manager, 41-year-old Daly – a Scottish Cup winner as a player with Dundee United in 2010 – is dreaming of further cup glory with The Lilywhites this term.

Dundalk begin their FAI Cup campaign at the weekend when they travel to Weavers Park to face Louth neighbours Drogheda United in the second round of this season’s edition.

And confidence will be taken from a 4-2 league win over Drogheda last Friday night.

“I’m the current holder in terms of the manager,” said Daly. “I’m obviously not at the same club, but I would like to go and retain it. I’d like to go and win it at a different club.

“It’s very, very difficult to do. Going away from home to your local rival is very tough. The game (last week) will have no kind of impact or won’t have any kind of sway on what happens. It’s going to be a totally different game and it’ll bring its own problems.

“They’re going to outnumber us fans wise, so it’s going to be another intense atmosphere that we’re going to have to deal with. A lot of our new players will be experiencing that for the first time. I’ve been to a couple of the games in pre-season, the Jim Malone Cups and stuff like that. I’ve been to them and they’ve always been good atmospheres.

“I’m looking forward to it and we’d like to go as far as we can. Obviously we need to focus on this one first.”

Dundalk were boosted by the return of Jamie Gullan and Robbie Mahon off the substitutes’ bench last Friday, however Andy Boyle, Paul Doyle and Norman Garbett (both hamstrings) are doubtful, while Dara Keane remains a long-term absentee.

Last week’s clash between Dundalk and Drogheda was marred by unsavoury scenes following the full-time whistle, in which several of the visiting crowd swarmed onto the pitch, sparking violent altercations that resulted in three arrests being made by Gardai.

The incident has led to suggestions that this week’s FAI Cup clash between the same sides could be played behind closed doors, or that the original kick-off time of 7.45pm on Friday be changed, with a 1pm start on Saturday believed to be under consideration.

“I only turned around and caught a bit of it,” recalled Daly. “It’s obviously not nice. I’d much rather be standing here talking about young Luke Mulligan coming on and the prospect that he is, and about Jad (Hakiki) and Ryan (O’Kane) and the young team that we had. We had two young centre-backs in there against good experience.

“They’ve got some good strikers, they’ve got some good players. Even bringing on the experience of Ryan Brennan and the cuteness that they have in terms of their game knowledge and stuff like that. And we’ve got boys that have played a handful of games between them, so that’s what I’d much rather be talking about, but it’s obviously disappointing.

“I think it takes away a little bit of a shine off the game. There has to be an edge to these games, of course, but it should never really spill over like that.”