Kilduff unimpressed despite another three points for Dundalk

Ciaran Kilduff was critical of his Dundalk FC side, despite their 2-0 victory over Kerry at Oriel Park on Friday night, which extended their unbeaten run in the SSE Airtricity League First Division to 16 matches.

In a game that lacked fluency, Dundalk were fortunate to reach half-time with a 1-0 lead, courtesy of a stunning strike from Leo Gaxha and a series of crucial saves from goalkeeper Enda Minogue.

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Although The Lilywhites improved after the break and captain Daryl Horgan added a second goal, Kilduff expressed dissatisfaction with the overall performance, even as his team extended their lead at the top of the table to six points.

“The performance wasn’t anywhere near what we wanted,” the Dundalk manager told The Democrat afterwards. “We were frustrated with a lot of aspects tonight.

“A real moment of quality from Daryl in the second half probably wins us the game and sees it out, but whether it was deserved at that point, I debate.

“They were causing us problems and we saw a little bit of inexperience or flatness to us tonight. You have to be honest, but the lads are honest too.

“Sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good, and at times we got a little bit of luck. We got a goal out of nothing when we looked like we were going to concede.”

That goal—Gaxha’s fourth of the campaign—arrived in the 43rd minute when, following a pass from Aodh Dervin, the Tralee native held off Ronan Teahan’s challenge and unleashed a cross-cum-shot that ricocheted off the inside of the post, handing a lethargic Dundalk a 1-0 lead.

“He’ll tell me it’s a shot, but it looked like a cross,” said Kilduff. “It doesn’t matter, it’s ended up in the net. It was something we had said during the week; we looked at their keeper and said, can we put some balls in on top of him or whatever, and then one has ended up in the back of the net.

“We take it, but we knew at half-time that we didn’t deserve it, and we had to act accordingly. Ken Kiernan said to me during the week, we have a 20-man squad tonight, and 10 of them are in full-time education.

“Some of these lads are kids—TYs, fifth-years, lads getting ready for Leaving Certs—and some aren’t even doing it yet for another year.

“We’ve a real inexperience there, and that somewhat explains the peaks and troughs of our performance at times, but you’re getting that with 17- to 18-year-olds, and there was a lot of frustration in that first half and large parts of the second half.

“It’s funny, we keep a clean sheet and win 2-0, but it’s just the manner of it. We’re trying to set standards. We know they have some good players and they’re a threat themselves, but I don’t think we really put our best foot forward tonight.”

Reflecting on Horgan’s goal—also his fourth of the season—Kilduff remarked, “Daryl is excellent. He’s come up with two big goals there back to back, moments of magic on the edge of the box.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to talk to him about. We want him to be that spark on the edge of the box and pick up those pockets where he can get those strikes in.

“It’s a moment of magic to kill a game, and then later in the game, as disappointed as you are, Leo Gaxha hits one off the post and you could be standing here going, it was 3-0, but we know ourselves it didn’t tell the full picture.

“We’ll learn from it, we’ll move on, but it’s still a big three points.”