Kilduff admits nerves creeping into Dundalk’s promotion push

Ciaran Kilduff is growing concerned that nerves may be creeping into his Dundalk FC squad as they edge closer to promotion from the SSE Airtricity League First Division.

The Dundalk manager watched his side suffer a 3-2 defeat to second-from-bottom Longford Town on Saturday night at Bishopsgate. Yet, with second-place Cobh Ramblers also losing by the same scoreline in Wexford 24 hours earlier, The Lilywhites remain six points clear at the summit, with just four fixtures remaining.

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Dundalk know that seven points—two wins and a draw—from their next three fixtures against UCD (home), Athlone Town (away), and Finn Harps (home) would be enough to secure the First Division title mathematically before they travel to Cobh on the season’s final night.

However, having claimed just one victory in their last four matches, Kilduff is increasingly wary that his side may be starting to wobble as they enter the decisive closing stages of the campaign.

“Undoubtedly, the nerves are (creeping in); they must be, because it’s hard to say anything else,” he told The Democrat following the Longford defeat.

“We don’t see the nerves on any given day, or no one’s going around saying, ‘I’m nervous,’ but the reality of it is there must be something deriving our energy, because that was a game we were focused on winning—a game that Dundalk should be winning—and we failed to do so and deserved to lose.

“It’s not like I’m sitting here going, ‘We missed two penalties, hit the bar, and had a load of chances.’ The best team won, and that’s the inexcusable part for me.

“There’s no wrapping it up,” he added. “If we don’t perform better than we did tonight, we won’t be wrapping anything up. It’ll be a long slog, and we’ll be doing well if we get out of here with anything.

“Tonight is the worst performance of my tenure, without a doubt. Everything we’re about wasn’t there. I know we were missing some big players, but it’s no excuse.

“The players on the pitch, we trusted to win the game, and they should have won the game, but on their performance: nowhere near. We didn’t deserve anything.”

Kilduff conceded that Cobh’s defeat the previous evening may have lulled his players into a sense of complacency.

“It’s hard to argue with that,” he admitted. “I know we spoke that that can’t be the way; I know that’s never the way in football. Nothing has ever been easy for this club or for myself in football. I don’t think you’ve ever won anything easy, and we’re not going to win anything easy. It’s a categorical fact.”

The Dundalk manager did not even watch the Cobh match; instead, he attended UCD’s game in Belfield, where the hosts secured a 2-1 victory, ahead of Dundalk hosting them this Friday night (kick-off, 7:45pm).

“We’ll be playing UCD next week,” he previewed. “I was there last night. They’re excellent, and we’ll get a really tough game. Anyone would (rip us apart) tonight; you’re looking at what I saw. The basics not being done, you get hurt. The only positive is we have a week of training to get ready for it.

“UCD are a top team,” he continued. “They took points off us in Oriel earlier in the year and probably deserved more than their draw. As I said, I saw them last night, and if they were watching us tonight, they’ll be smelling blood. We’ve won one of the last four—call it for what it is: two draws against Kerry and Wexford, a win against Bray, and a defeat tonight.

“I don’t think we’re going to have anything easy, but we’ve been saying that for a while. We haven’t got any easy games, and if anyone thought tonight was going to be easy—players, supporters, staff, or otherwise—they were categorically wrong, because we haven’t had an easy game all year, and we just got found out tonight.”