‘We knew it was coming’: Buckley after Dundalk’s five-goal display

Dundalk FC midfielder Keith Buckley is settling into life at Oriel Park after completing another 90 minutes in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division as The Lilywhites swept aside Waterford 5-0.

For the 33-year-old Dubliner, the return to regular football has been a gradual one. Buckley made more than 300 Premier Division appearances for Bohemians between 2011 and 2025, but an ACL injury ruled him out of the entire 2024 campaign.

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He returned last season in a limited role as Bohs secured a top-four finish.

A move to newly promoted Dundalk during the off-season has offered a fresh start. Friday night’s victory over Waterford marked the first time since the end of 2023 that Buckley has completed back-to-back full matches.

Reflecting on the blend of youth and experience within the Dundalk dressing room, Buckley said the squad is beginning to grow into the demands of the division.

“There’s plenty here. You have Daryl (Horgan). Conor O’Keeffe has been in the league a long time as well, plenty of games. Aodh Dervin has played many games.

“There’s a lot of lads who are young who have plenty of games under the belt, but it is a good blend. Harry Groome is a young lad as well. This division is new to these lads, and sometimes they can be fearing it, but I think now they realise they’re able for this level.”

That growing confidence was underlined by Dundalk’s five-goal dismantling of Waterford, a result that finally delivered their first win of the campaign after four draws in their opening five matches of the Premier Division season.

For Buckley, the emphatic victory was a welcome reward after a string of frustrating stalemates.

“It’s always good to get lots of goals as well and to claw back that goal difference that we gave up against Pats,” he said. “So it was a nice night. We always kept the belief.

“We always knew that we were going to get a win, and in some games we could have scored more as well, so it’s great to get the goals.

“There was a bit of frustration, but we knew that something like this was going to come. We haven’t been playing badly. We can always get better, but deep down we kind of knew there were an extra couple of gears we needed to go to, and thankfully tonight it came off.”

At the time of writing, ahead of Dundalk’s meeting with Sligo Rovers on Monday night, the victory over Waterford had lifted them into the top half of the Premier Division table on seven points.

Despite the encouraging start, Buckley insisted there was little appetite within the squad to get carried away, suggesting the team’s ambitions remain largely internal.

“There’s a long way to go. In this league, a week can jump you up a lot of places and a week can drop you down at the same time,” he said.

“We’ve a healthy squad. Mayowa (Animasahun) hasn’t trained; he played one game in five weeks, and he was brilliant today. Peter Cherrie coming in, always available, is brilliant. Shane Tracey, 19 years of age, I think it’s his Premier Division debut, so it was a good night all round.

“We have our internal goals and we keep them within ourselves. When you do good in life and you do bad in life, people always talk. So we have our own internal goals that remain within, and hopefully we can push on now and get a run going.”