Dundalk’s patience pays off as second-half surge sinks Wexford

Ciaran Kilduff expressed that a composed approach was essential for Dundalk FC to secure their 3-0 victory over Wexford in the SSE Airtricity League First Division.

Although The Lilywhites ultimately emerged as comfortable winners in the end, they faced relentless resistance from Wexford for the first 66 minutes at Oriel Park.

The deadlock was finally broken by a sublime finish from Leo Gaxha, followed swiftly by a second from Sean Keogh.

Gaxha then completed his brace and sealed Dundalk’s third on 78 minutes, capping off what was a devastating 12-minute spell from the hosts.

READ MORE: The 1903 highlights community efforts and ground plans at AGM

However, the scoreline didn’t tell the full story, as The Lilywhites were thwarted time and again, particularly by Wexford goalkeeper Paul Martin, for much of the contest.

When asked by The Democrat about his approach in the dressing room at half-time, Dundalk manager Kilduff remarked: “I always do (use my notes). We go in as a staff first.

“We let the lads take a couple of minutes to themselves and debrief, and us as a staff debrief. I’d rather go in knowing what I wanted to say than going in ranting and raving with emotion, so I try to take a couple of minutes.

“We went through a little bit on the press, why it wasn’t working. I told the lads they needed to be a little bit more clinical in their press, but also a little bit more fearless at the back.

“Sean Keogh had been away all week, he’s only back. Aodh Dervin is still at right-back. Vinnie (Leonard) is only back as well, so it wasn’t a perfect week, but there are no excuses. We still felt we could have done better and I think we did in the second half.”

Reflecting on his side’s explosive 12-minute blitz in the second period, he added: “I told them afterwards that we couldn’t be prouder of them.

“We felt like 45 minutes got away from us, but there are loads of reasons—some of that’s on us, and some of that’s on them.

“We should have probably fixed it quicker, but we knew at half-time, once we got them in and we could hit the reset, that we’d be able to play like we could in the second half.

“I wanted to blow the doors off the place, I wanted to entertain, I wanted to really impose ourselves on the game, but it took us until the second half to really do that. We scored three great goals, but we could have had a couple more too with some other big chances.”

Heading into Friday night’s clash, third-placed Wexford had conceded just three goals all season. However, Dundalk swiftly doubled that tally with a commanding 3-0 victory.

“Wexford are a good team in our division right now,” said Kilduff. “They have some good players, you could see that in the first half.

“I’m sure Stephen (Elliott) is frustrated because he has them well set up. They’re well organised. They have some really good quality in their ranks, and they can hurt any team.

“The goalkeeper is excellent; they have a load of excellent players out there, so we knew that coming into it. I was trying to build them up all week as the team that would be one of our biggest tests because everyone’s found their rhythm now.

“We’re seven games in. In the first game or two, everyone’s finding their feet. I was watching them the last couple of weeks. They’re a good team, and we’re delighted to come out the other end of it with a 3-0 victory.”