Dundalk goalkeeper will “hold his hands up” says boss

Jon Daly says Dundalk FC goalkeeper Felix Goddard has taken responsibility for Drogheda United’s opener in Friday night’s Sports Direct FAI Cup second-round tie.

The 20-year-old loan signing from Blackburn Rovers, playing in his second match for The Lilywhites, was left red-faced on 16 minutes after guiding a James Bolger effort into his own net after the Drogheda defender had latched onto a Luke Heeney long ball.

Drogheda doubled their lead on 74 minutes through Warren Davis, while defender Bobby Faulkner’s first goal in Dundalk colours at the death was merely a consolation.

“I don’t think Drogheda done an awful lot,” reflected Dundalk manager Daly in the aftermath of their 2-1 defeat. “I didn’t think either team were great tonight if I’m being brutally honest, but they’ve taken their opportunities from the mistakes that we made and they’ve punished us for that and good luck to them.

“The first goal, it’s an error on our part. Felix has made a mistake and unfortunately when you’re a goalkeeper, when you make mistakes, it generally leads to a goal.”

Goddard is the fourth goalkeeping option that has been utilised by Dundalk throughout what has been a chaotic season, with the departed George Shelvey, now on the radar of Sheffield Wednesday, Ross Munro and Sean Molloy all having spells between the sticks.

“He’ll hold his hands up,” added Daly when speaking about Goddard’s error. “He’s made a mistake and that’s part of being a footballer and part of being a human. You’re going to make mistakes, it’s how you bounce back from it.

“I don’t think he could do an awful lot for the second. It’s a long ball that the defenders should deal with and they don’t, and we give up an opportunity for Warren Davis to help it in and he does, so credit to him there.

“Outside of that, he made a few good saves. He had some good handling outside of that. He’s still getting used to the players in front of him, so we need to continue to work on that and we need to try and continue to get better.

“But tonight was really disappointing. From my point of view, it’s probably the worst we’ve been since I’ve been here and it’s disappointing that it’s come in this game especially.”

Daly also felt his team should have been awarded a penalty on three minutes when Robbie Benson was bundled over inside the area by Drogheda midfielder Elicha Ahui.

“I’m not going to stand here and blame the referee, but these are the decisions that you hope go your way and you expect to go your way. That’s very early in the game, so if you get that and we score that, then it’s a different game, but we didn’t get it.

“It doesn’t excuse the performance or the goals we conceded. The referee has made a mistake, that happens, but it’s up to us to try and create a little bit more in around their penalty box.”