Dundalk FC must aim for the automatic promotion place

Two weeks ago Daryl Horgan was unveiled as the new Dundalk skipper. It was an excellent decision by the new manager, as Daryl is a leader in every sense of the word. He is a motivator and a communicator.

He is the type of player that the new boss at Oriel needs to bring his philosophy of football on the pitch. Daryl is the sort of player who will inspire his fellow teammates to go that bit extra for the cause. That will be needed in Division One. It is a real dogfight in this division.

There are going to be many times when Dundalk will have to play ugly to win. But in this division, it's all about winning. Dundalk must aim for the automatic promotion place. To do that will take skill, a good defence, a strong midfield and a good striker.

Dundalk must make Oriel a fortress. They can, with Daryl Horgan leading them. Dundalk have made what appears to be five very good signings. But they need more. Ciaran Kilduff will need a squad of 20 players. He has already signed a good goalkeeper.

He needs to sign another. Ciaran also needs another centre-back and another good striker. He also needs more players in midfield. It's highly unlikely last year's keeper Ross Munro will stay on. Jamie Gullen is also expected to be on the move.

He was never going to be a replacement for Pat Hoban as a striker. However, his tally of just 5 goals for the season was very disappointing. But Jamie is a winger. Last year he was never used in that position.

I caught up with the new Dundalk skipper in the past week. Daryl told me that of course, Dundalk would have wanted to be in the Premier division. But he is realistic and knows he must lead his players out of the First Division in what will be a very tough task.

''Last season was a massive disappointment for everybody involved. We must now put that behind us and not allow it to fester. We can not allow our relegation to seep into the players and everybody around us. Right now we must look at it as a real clean slate.

It's a huge opportunity for the young players coming through. And these lads are very talented, believe you me. For the club itself, it's a time to reevaluate and build again. For the existing players here it's an opportunity to right a wrong.

It's an opportunity for us to get back on track and get us back into the Premier Division. It's where we want to belong. It's where a huge club like Dundalk should be.

It's a chance for the club itself to re-evaluate and to start out on a sustainable footing. Obviously, madness had occurred last year. I suppose over the few years and everything ''.

''The club getting the licence was fantastic news. It was obtained by the hard work of our new owner John Temple and CEO Peter Halpin. There were others of course involved. But the great news is that we can now play football in the League of Ireland.

We can rise again to be one of the best clubs in the country. We are ready to go since we got confirmation that we got a new licence. As I said there are the bones of some really exciting young players coming through.

This will be a very exciting time for them. And then Dundalk is a great club. It's a massive club in Ireland. There has always been a good fan base.

You could see that over the past year where people were prepared to put their hands in their back pocket and pay to support the club when times were tough. It was incredible to see the community spirit among the fans last season. The support we got last season was just great.

It would have been so easy for the supporters to have booed us last season. But they did not. They were behind us right to the end of the season. We always got that which is a great testament to the fans. We were looking at one stage that there might not even be a football club.''

''Next season we have to go back to basics. We have to build a platform which will get us promoted and be extremely successful again.

On the Monday when there was a deadline of 5 pm that the club would be liquidated, the players and myself did not even know would the gates be closed the following day, and that would be it for Dundalk.

There was a strong feeling among the squad that we might need to start taking our stuff out of Oriel. We saw the supporters coming up on the Monday as the deadline approached. It was a crazy crazy time. To be thinking will I have a job tomorrow and will this town have a football club was awful.''

''The awful thought hit me, will the great history of this club be erased in the blink of an eye if we are liquidated? Fortunately, we just got away with survival and no more. But that was all we needed. We are just beginning our training this week. Every club does this.

We all just keep topping up in December. It used to be that you would say goodbye at the end of the season and not return until January. But now all clubs get their players back in December. It's a great idea. You are looking at the possibility that we may have a completely new squad.

I just do not know what the ins and outs of that are going to be. The manager will want to get a look at the existing squad. So for that reason coming back in mid-December has been a good idea. It's also good for the players to come in now. We will get a feel for the new regime.

I will be there to provide whatever help I can give to players in the squad if needed. I will be there if needed to point the young lads in the right direction. I will be there to help physically, tactically and emotionally if needed.

The game can be very tough for every player, especially with social media. It is so immediate. Everything is so amazing or terrible. I got advice once and it has lived with me always.

I was advised to believe that I am never as good as I thought I was. And I was never as bad as I thought I was either. I will be giving that advice to the younger players in the squad if needed.''

''To be given the captaincy of the team was such an honour. The manager has been so successful at Athlone. He guided the women's team to a league and cup over two seasons. He also guided them to the cup final this season. Now he has the chance to be successful at Dundalk.

Ciaran is chomping at the bit. He is really looking forward to the task ahead. It was disappointing to see John Mountney move to Bohemians. However, It's understandable. He is 31 now and wants to stay in the Premier Division.

It was such a tough year for everybody last year. John has given so much to Dundalk. He really impressed on and off the pitch last season. It might have just taken its toll on him.

He also might just need a new challenge. He has made the best decision he feels for him and his family. It's disappointing for Dundalk that he did not stay.''

''Football is a team game. We all had to take responsibility equally for what happened on the pitch. I hope everybody did. I looked in the mirror and asked how it was and the way and why it was. I hope all the lads asked themselves the exact same thing.

We were the perfect fit for relegation. We were not scoring and we were giving goals away so easily. Once Jon Daly came in we were only losing games by the narrowest of margins. You need to wrestle those small margins in your favour. But we did not.

It was always the odd goal we were beaten by. You would have thought by the law of averages, that you would draw a couple of games and win a couple. There were games where we just could not put teams away.

The Sligo game was an example, where we led. Yet eventually we could not withstand the pressure. That is why we were relegated. The offield issues should not be used as an excuse why we were relegated. We had a horrific start.

We failed to win any of the first 8 games in the league. It was a horrific start. We had a bit of a bounce when Jon Daly came in. But then the season just petered out. We could not put teams away.

We simply were not scoring. But we were giving goals away. We were in front against Pats and Bohs in Oriel. But we could not shut up shop. We lost those games. We were just  simply unable to get any momentum going at all.

''Dundalk will be a great option for any young player. It's a club that has been through the wringer. I know what the First Division is like. I played for Salthill Devon in 2010. Then I played for Cork City in the same Division in 2011. We won the league that season and got promoted.

You have to earn the right to win every game in football. You can dress things up whatever way you want. It's eleven v eleven on the football pitch/ You just have to be better than the eleven you are playing against.

You have to be solid in defence, you have to create scoring chances, and you must score more. I saw what it was like losing games in the First Division. But I also saw what it was like winning too with Cork City.

Football has become a real squad game. There has to be rotation. You need a squad of twenty for all teams whether it be the Premier or First Divisions. We have a lot of really talented young players coming through.

But you can't expect a really young player to play thirty-eight league games in the First Division. A player who can make a big impact off the bench for sixteen to twenty games can make a massive difference in the First Division.''

''It's going to be a tough, tough season. But every year is tough. All games will be difficult. There will be some with minimal atmosphere. We will have to deal with them ourselves. But we will of course have plenty of games where there will be a huge atmosphere.

It's important the players, supporters and the club as a whole stay on the same page and that we all go in the same direction. It's so important that we have the fans behind us next season. There have been good and bad times at Dundalk over the years.

Last year was a bad one. But you learn the most from the bad times. You learn about people and everything. The fans were fantastic last season. They were in fact amazing. Knowing that we are going to have our fans' backing in the coming season is so exciting.

We as a team will want to reward that support that has been given to us. We have wasted a lot of that credit we have received from the supporters. We have to make up for that this season. People were amazing last season.''

''We want to be a never-say-die team and work ourselves to the bone. We want to be a team that will score a lot of goals and keep a lot of clean sheets. I have been training away myself over the close season. All players must do that.

You simply do not have the time like maybe players had in the past to get themselves up and running. You need to come back to pre-season training fit. The days of coming back three stone overweight are long gone.

The expectation in every club is that you come back fit and ready to train. Then you can get ready for work and start to train straight away. We will come in for our first re-training session this week. The manager will be able to look at everybody.''.

''Dundalk will be a lot of peoples' favourites to go straight back up next season. That in itself will bring us pressure. But we must relish that pressure. We are a big club in the First Division. We need to be in a position and say look this is us and we need to say that we are ready to go.

I know that there are expectations on us. We might be playing teams where games might be different. All teams must be treated with respect. There are a lot of good teams in the Division. We have got to say that yes we may be the favourites going into a lot of games.

But we can never take anything for granted. We will have to have a different approach to each game. We must go in and wear that badge of honour where people are going to think we are a good side. And we must tell ourselves that we must now go and be a good side.''

''Aodh Dervan is staying on with us in the new season. He will be a great player to have in the side and to play in midfield. He is a very intelligent player. His never-say-die attitude is also immense. He gives everything to the team in every second of the game.

He is a talented footballer and so far has had a decent career. He has won promotion out of the First Division at least twice. This was with Galway and with Shelbourne as well. Aodh knows what the Division is all about.

From the get-go when we were relegated Aodh wanted to stay with Dundalk for the coming season. He wants to right what went wrong. Others might not have felt that way. Aodh said no.

I want to be part of the Dundalk team in season 2025. He saw the support and everything that was around it. He will without doubt be a great player to have.''

''When I came back to Dundalk midway through 2023, I had a great ambition about what we could achieve. Look, that's football. It sometimes does not turn out the way you would have expected.

You have to adapt. Despite all the success I have had in my career, playing in the First Division in the coming season will not be difficult for me in any way. I get up every day and I love training. So that's my starting point.

I will have to play games with all the players who will be in the same boat as me. Everybody will just want to play better. And every player will also want to succeed. And every player in the First Division will be saying exactly the same thing.

We want to get back to the Premier Division and get playing against the big boys on the big nights. So going into the new season that's the real excitement for me. There are a lot of talented players in the First Division.

But I am confident that as a club we can do very well. I am very excited about what Dundalk can achieve and move up. And I want to be very much part of the team when we move up.''

Meanwhile, the Dundalk FC Supporters Trust have responded to comments made about them by the club owner John Temple at a press conference on 5th December. At the time I said to John that the Trust had collected up to 100,000 euro so far.

I said that many of those who make up the trust support the club. I asked the club owner if he would be interested in talking to them at any stage. John said that he would talk to the Trust when they stop what he said were lies being told about him.

John said that a lot of lies were being told about him by people involved in the Trust. He said there was a certain person who he named at the press conference who he claimed had been channelling a lot of things about him that were not true.

He said that maybe perhaps when the Trust stop pedalling what he said was their lies and that when they want to talk properly about the facts about the club that then he would sit down and talk with them.

Mr Temple says that until such time the Trust issues a public apology for what he says they have been saying about him personally, that maybe then he will sit down and talk to the Trust.

The Trust in their statement say they would like to congratulate John Temple and his support team on obtaining a licence for the 2025 season.

They say that this development along with the appointment of Ciaran Kilduff, the launch of the new jersey and recent signings has given everybody a much-needed and welcome boost.

The Trust says that they have watched and carefully considered comments made regarding their organisation by John Temple at the 5th December press conference.

They say that they strongly refute the comments and claim that the Trust has not been peddling lies about John Temple. They also strongly refute personally criticising him or the 500 club package.

The Trust also says that they will not be issuing an apology as they do not believe one is warranted. The Trust also says that they also welcome comments made by Mister Temple that under his stewardship the club will have full transparency, and respect for fans and work hand in glove with those fans.

The Trust says that they represent a substantial number of those very same fans, spanning generations of loyal support for Dundalk Football Club.

The Trust finished their statement by saying that they have no appetite or desire to be in conflict with the club owners at what they called this challenging time in the club's history.

They say they would welcome a meeting with Mr Temple at the earliest opportunity. This would be so that they may work together for the benefit of the club. The Trust says that they wish to assist Mr Temple in ensuring that there is no return to the dark days of last September.

There was a question and answer session between Ciaran Kilduff and Dundalk supporters in the Lillywhite Lounge last night. At the time of writing this piece, it seems Dundalk were set to announce some new signings last night.

Only time will tell. The fixture list is out today. Ciaran Kilduff will be giving the details of a forensic examination as he plots Dundalk's first journey in Division One since 2008.

Have a great week. Please look after each other and remember to be careful out there.