Dundalk's Daly praises 'fantastic' Mountney

Jon Daly praised John Mountney after he headed home his second goal of the season as Dundalk FC drew 1-1 at Derry City in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.

The 31-year-old club captain didn’t play a single game in 2023 due to a knee injury, but has battled back admirably this term, scoring twice in 19 appearances for The Lilywhites.

Mountney has played as a right-back, left-back and right-midfielder for Dundalk this year, but last Friday was deployed in the centre of the park, alongside Aodh Dervin.

“We started him in the middle of the pitch tonight and then he finished the game at left-back,” manager Daly said after the match on Friday night. “It shows you his versatility and what he can do for us. He’s just a fantastic player. He’s a really, really good football player and I could play him anywhere.

“In my head, I was thinking if I needed to change shape with the players on the pitch to a 4-2-3-1, I could probably put him up as one of the higher ones as well. He gives you a lot of versatility and he’s a real leader in the changing room. Himself and the other senior players are proper professionals.

“It was a fantastic goal, a great header and great delivery from Horgs. He went in and got away from Mark Connolly, who is one of the best defenders in the league. He managed to get away from him and stick his head on it and score, so I’m delighted for him.

“He probably felt it’s been a while coming, he’s had a couple of opportunities, so hopefully he can build on that now and go and get a couple more goals for us.

“The positivity and the feeling around the group hasn’t dropped and it’s been high. It’s very easy to see the negatives if you want to, but we always look for the positives and going into this little mini break with a positive performance and result is always better.”

While the summer transfer window closed on July 28th, clubs are still permitted to register out-of-work professionals until August 31st, with Daly not ruling out the possibility of adding more reinforcements to complement the 10 players already signed.

“I’ve seen Rovers have signed Marc McNulty and there’s a few others that have signed players. Sean Maguire has gone to Cork. There’s players out there, but the problem you have is that they’ve waited and waited and waited to get something in the UK.

“It’s not popped up and it’s going to take you three, four, five weeks to get them up to speed. If somebody pops up that we feel would help the group, they would probably be coming in at a capacity to play 15, 20 minutes until they get up to speed.

“It is a tough one and if somebody comes up that we feel will help us get where we need to go, then we’ll move. We have one spot left on our A list, so basically we can bring one player in. We’re always looking to try and improve things, but if nobody comes in then I’m more than happy to run with what we have.”