Depleted Dundalk face selection woes ahead of Longford clash

Dundalk FC’s backline faces further depletion ahead of their SSE Airtricity League First Division clash against Longford Town tonight at Oriel Park (kick-off: 7.45pm).

With goalkeeper Enda Minogue still recovering from a fractured finger and defender Ethen Vaughan sidelined for an extended period with a hamstring injury, The Lilywhites will also be without Sean Keogh and Vinnie Leonard this weekend, as they embark on international duty with the Republic of Ireland U19 and U17 squads, respectively.

Conor O’Keeffe and Mayowa Animasahun may be in contention for a return, but both have sat out the past two matches due to injury, with the latter not featuring since pulling his hamstring versus Finn Harps in Ballybofey exactly four weeks ago this Friday.

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“We have a few issues coming up this week,” Dundalk manager Ciaran Kilduff told The Democrat. “Sean Keogh and Vinnie Leonard are away with the Irish underage teams.

“Our hands are tied. We’re down a couple of our senior players—both of them lads have played every minute of every game so far.

“You can see we’re thin on the bench anyway, with injuries and that, so we might not be in a perfect scenario, but no excuses are being made. We’ll prepare accordingly for Longford, but like every other game, nothing will be taken for granted, and we’re expecting a tough game next weekend.”

Norman Garbett will also miss the Longford clash due to a hamstring injury, but Dundalk receive a welcome boost as Leo Gaxha returns from his two-game suspension.

Longford have not claimed a competitive victory at Oriel since the sides last met in the First Division in 2008—a win that was only their second-ever league triumph on the Carrick Road, with the first having come in 1999 when Stephen Kenny was in charge.

Indeed, should Wayne Groves lead his side to an unlikely three points, he would become only the third Longford manager—after Kenny and Vinny Perth—to succeed at Oriel.

His team will take some confidence from their come-from-behind 3-2 home win over Kerry last Saturday, their first victory of the campaign, which lifted them to eighth.

The Lilywhites will enter the fixture as strong favourites, however, having remained unbeaten in their opening five matches and currently sitting top of the First Division.

“We’ll take as many positives as we can out of it,” said Kilduff after his side ran out comfortable 3-1 winners in their latest outing against Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds.

“We started so well and put them to the sword early. At half-time, we spoke about wanting to kick on. We had chances to extend that lead and didn’t. We’re a little bit frustrated to lose the clean sheet at the end.

“Peter (Cherrie) was excellent as well. We asked for a reaction across the back four. There’s a little bit of frustration, more than disappointment, because we wanted to kick on in the second half.

“All in all, it’s a good night’s work. It’s three points on the board. It’s a good reaction after not finishing the game as strongly last week (against Treaty United) as we would’ve liked, and we’ll move on from there. That’s three points in the bag now, and it’ll take us into the next week with a bit more confidence than we started with.”

The 15 outfield players Dundalk fielded against Bray had an average age of just 21, and Kilduff was highly satisfied with how his young squad responded in Wicklow, especially only a week after they had relinquished a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Treaty at home.

“We’re putting great expectation and pressure on these young players already,” he admitted. “They’re at a club like Dundalk. You never get a game off; you never get five minutes off. We probably learned the hard way last week, all of us.

“If you’d said that in the first five games we’d win four of them, draw one, still be unbeaten, and be top of the table, you would’ve been delighted with the young lads.

“You can see TJ (Molloy) coming on, Sean Spaight, Shane Tracey—these are kids that we’re blooding in now. Hopefully, in weeks to come, they’ll all be bearing fruit, and they’ll be the next generation.

“We have to plan ahead here, but look at where we are right now. We’re delighted with everything. We’re delighted with the first five games, but there’s a tough one coming next week and the week after. This is a marathon, not a sprint, so nothing will be taken for granted.”