Dundalk is a "brilliant place to play" states Kilduff

March 7th, 2008 – until Friday night, the last time Dundalk FC started a League of Ireland season in the First Division, drawing 0-0 with Shelbourne at Tolka Park.

Later that month, Vinnie Leonard was born – an unassuming arrival in a world where few could have imagined that, less than 17 years later, he would emerge as the hero of Dundalk’s next First Division opener, this time against Athlone Town at Oriel Park.

Scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win, his feat was all the more remarkable given that the 16-year-old defender was not even expected to feature, for just two days beforehand, he had played 90 minutes for the Republic of Ireland U17s against Finland in Valencia, Spain.

“We made a call early in the week,” Dundalk manager Ciaran Kilduff said after The Lilywhites got their SSE Airtricity League First Division season off to a flyer.

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“Obviously with Sean McHale coming back from injury, he’s been only back training this week, and with Vinnie being away and being so impressive against Drogheda in the Malone Cup, I think he was player of the match here that night, I just rang.

“We got in touch with the Ireland camp and asked could we get him home on Wednesday. He came home and we looked after him last night. He got his massage, he did very little last night in training and then we got him ready for tonight.

“We had six corners maybe before that and we were kind of getting a bit frustrated that we weren’t getting first contact. Then Vinnie, showing his character for 16 years of age, getting his head to score a winner on an opening night. It’s a great moment for him.”

Not content with heading home a decisive winner at one end, Meath man Leonard – alongside centre-back partner Mayowa Animasahun – kept a clean sheet at the other.

As the goal stemmed from an Aodh Dervin corner on 36 minutes, Kilduff also underscored the vital role of set-pieces in shaping the outcome of matches this season.

“The first thing we demand and the basis for a win is a clean sheet,” outlined the Dundalk manager. “It’s very hard to win without them sometimes, especially in this division.

“It’s two set pieces that have won us two important games that we’ve targeted – the Malone Cup against Drogheda, and then again here tonight in the league opener.

“We score off a free-kick against Drogheda, we score tonight off a corner, we keep two clean sheets, you win the games and you take the points.

“It seems a lot easier when you’re critiquing maybe a few things that we could improve on when you’ve actually won the game.

“If we’d finished that 1-1 today or we’d given one away late, it would’ve felt probably like a defeat considering the chances we had.

“It’s not just Enda (Minogue), it’s the whole back four. It starts from the front, and we’re delighted with the clean sheet. It gave us the foundation to win the game.”

With an impressive crowd of 2,600 filling Oriel on Friday night – up from the 2024 average of 2,419 – the electric atmosphere was palpable, a fervent support that will be instrumental to the team’s success as they bid for promotion to the Premier Division.

“It’s huge,” replied Kilduff when asked about the importance of making Oriel a fortress. “It’s such a positive for us as players and staff to tap into. Every time we play here, there’s going to be a demand and an expectation to perform.

“The problem you have, though, is there’s no other clubs in this division that are going to have crowds like that, so when the opposition come as well, they all want to play here too.

“It’s a brilliant place to play. I mean, it’s why I feel so privileged and took the job, because I know how great this place is and if you can get it right and you can get big nights, there’s no better place.

“We’re going to need it all season. We know every time we play here, we’re going to get a tough game. That’s why the crowd and ourselves need to work in unison and hopefully drag things over the line because at times it wasn’t as pretty as you’d probably want tonight.

“But the pretty thing is that we’ve got three points in the bag, and we’ll take that any night of the week where we are right now. We’ll improve things, we’ve loads to improve on, but we’ll take our night’s work, three points and we move on.”