Dundalk FC set for historic night in the Kingdom

Dundalk FC are bracing themselves for an historic SSE Airtricity League First Division meeting with Kerry tomorrow night (Friday) at Mounthawk Park in Tralee (kick-off, 7.45pm).

The Lilywhites have never before faced Kerry, the League of Ireland’s newest club, making Friday’s clash in ‘The Kingdom’ a highly anticipated and much-discussed affair.

While Dundalk currently top the First Division on maximum points after two matches, next in line are Kerry, who followed up their 2-0 home win over Finn Harps on opening night with an impressive scoreless draw with Cobh Ramblers at St Colman’s Park.

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With a strong contingent of Dundalk supporters expected to journey to Kerry this week, manager Ciaran Kilduff has confirmed that his squad will travel down on Thursday.

“We were planning on flying, but all the fans took all the plane seats,” he joked. “We’re not flying down; we’re going down the night before on Thursday and we’re going to stay over and try and do things properly. The club have been great in supporting us with that.

“It’s Norman Garbett’s 21st weekend, so we’re coming back for that. We want to get home late Friday night, so we’re going to look after the lads on Thursday down there. Hopefully we can get a good performance and result and get home late Friday night.”

Ethen Vaughan (hamstring) is a definite absentee for the visit to Kerry, however Gbemi Arubi is back in training and could make his league debut for Dundalk this weekend.

The Lilywhites were also boosted by the return of Norman Garbett in the 1-0 win over Finn Harps in Ballybofey last Friday night, but Mayowa Animasahun is considered a doubt for Kerry after being forced off in the same match due to a hamstring complaint.

“He definitely felt something in his hamstring,” said Kilduff when asked about Animasahun’s condition. “Mayowa has already declared himself fit for next week and training. He has a great attitude, but we’ll have to look after him now.

“It was a heavy pitch there (against Harps). I’m hoping it was mild. It doesn’t seem to be anything too serious, but still it was enough to make him have to come off, so we have to assess him.”

A hard-fought victory over Harps in Donegal tested Dundalk’s mettle in their pursuit of promotion back to the Premier Division, with Friday’s clash in Kerry poised to offer up a similar challenge for Kilduff, who has become the first person since Turlough O’Connor in 1985 to win his first two League of Ireland fixtures as Dundalk manager.

“There’s nothing glamorous about this league,” remarked Kilduff on the First Division. “It was probably a bit glamorous when you’re playing Athlone in front of a full house in Oriel, but that’s not the league. That’s an anomaly in this league and I’m well aware of that, as are the lads who signed up for the season.

“This is going to be a dogfight and there’s going to be more nights like that (versus Harps). There’ll be nights where we might get hurt late and you just have to take it on the chin and move on because you can see anyone on the their night is capable of beating anyone.”