Kilduff concedes honeymoon over after Dundalk’s heavy defeat

Ciaran Kilduff says Dundalk FC’s brief honeymoon period in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division has ended following a 4-0 defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park.

Back in the top flight after a one-season absence, Dundalk had opened their campaign with draws against Derry City, Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers.

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Those encouraging early results gave way to a sobering reality check in Inchicore, where Kilduff’s side conceded four goals in what was Dundalk’s heaviest league defeat on the road since a 5-1 loss to Bohemians in 2021.

“We’re very disappointed,” said the Dundalk manager. “It’s been a tough week. We went in and we gave everything of ourselves on Friday and Monday in Tallaght, and we made a really good account of ourselves.

“I thought tonight we just weren’t able to stay at those energy levels. To go three games in a week was too soon, maybe, in our tenure in the Premier Division and with the group.

“If you’re any way off it at teams like St Pats, they have the quality to hurt you, and we gifted them some goals, which was very disappointing, and it turned out to be a long night.

“There’s going to be tough nights,” he added. “We opened up with some good nights. We even felt, with those good nights, we were still a little bit disappointed with late heartbreak, but tonight just wasn’t one of them, and you have to own it, and we’ll dust off and get ready for a big one in Galway.

“It was probably just the end of the honeymoon period in terms of the league being so unforgiving, and we got punished.”

Dundalk were without defensive duo Mayowa Animasahun and Vinnie Leonard for the meeting with St Pats, leaving Kilduff to field a back four and goalkeeper who were not at the club this time last year.

“We’re still trying to figure things out,” he said. “Vinnie has been brilliant since I’ve come to the club. Mayowa has been injured. Conor O’Keeffe is coming back from injury.

“It’s no disrespect to anyone. The lads that came in tonight gave everything, but they’re being thrown in. Even Harvey (Warren) has been suspended for the first two games, and then he’s just got thrown into the deep end.

“Rob (Cornwall) has been around, but he’s played a lot of minutes in the last week as well. JR (Wilson) has just played three 90 minutes at this intensity, and he hasn’t done it for over a year and a half.

“I have a feeling that we might have some tough nights coming down the line, but we came here to try and win the game tonight. I know we were far away from doing it, but obviously that wasn’t the objective.

“The objective was to be on the front foot, aggressive. For the first 10 or 15 minutes, I thought we did that, but we gifted them goals, they took their chances, and they could have had more, but we could have had some too.

“We’re coming after teams this year, and that approach really worked on Monday night at Rovers, but it dropped down a gear, and I don’t think it was even done deliberately.

“It was just more that we couldn’t sustain our usual levels the way we wanted to play, and they had the quality to hurt us.”